Lake of the Ozarks

We took a chance and tried our first car ride vacation with a toddler. Josh's mom and I braved the 8 hour drive to the Lake of the Ozarks and the Moloney family reunion. Brady did 1000 times better than I ever could have imagined. We left at 3:30 am thinking that he would fall back to sleep in the car and sleep part of the way. . . WRONG! He stayed awake the entire time except for two 20 minute cat naps. The rest of the time he was wonderful, not even any fits! We had a great time while we where there. We got to swim, play on the "beach", go fishing, throw rocks, everything Brady loves to do. He also got to play with all his cousins. . . so much fun! Uncle Tim & Chris rented jet ski's one day so Brady got to "drive" the motorcycle in the lake. He liked it for the first part and then wanted off. Needless to say he was worn out for the ride home!

Swimming with Sydney in the lake. He thought he was very big!

The view from the house was amazing, you could lay in the hammock on the porch and see the lake and all the hills/mountains. . . wonderful!

Catching Up

Ok so I know it has been a LONG time since I last posted but we have been busy! Since the last post we have been to the Zoo, Monkey Joes, Swimming and on a short vacation to our friends lake house. Bradys seems to be getting more grown up each day (he got in & out of the bathtub, and dried himself off all by himself today). We are having a great summer so far, I can't believe it is almost half over!

Ok so here is what we have been up to. . . We went to the Zoo a couple weeks ago with Madi and Reagan. Brady had a great time, we got to see the Komodo Dragon (not very exciting), his favorites were the fish and the seals.

Shortly after the Zoo we decided to try Monkey Joes, it was wonderful! Brady had such a great time bouncing, sliding and running everywhere. We went with my sister and Kaitlin so he got to keep up with the big kids, it was great!

He got to have a cupcake for breakfast (I know Mom of the Year awards!) and had icing all over his face. I told him he looked silly and he says "take a picture". He wouldn't let it go until I took a picture.

We have been swimming with Stie and Kaitlin alot this summer. The other day while we were getting ready to go swimming he found his suspenders and insisted on wearing them with his swimsuit. At least I convinced him to take them off before going in the pool!

He also got new goggles that same day from Grammy and insisted on wearing them home from her house. He has yet to wear them swimming but thinks they are great for wearing while riding on his truck, he won't take them off until they are so foggy that he can't see!

This 4th we went to our friends lake house for a couple of days. It was wonderful, Brady got to go fishing (his new favorite thing), play with Hailey and Aidan and go swimming. I got to go Outlet Mall shopping. . . YEA!!! He loved Aidan's "Batman" fishing pole but Brady calls it the "fatman" fishing pole:) I think he spent most of his time fishing off the sea wall.

He did sparklers on the 4th. I thought he might freak out but he loved them and did a great job with them.

Making "Pea Poop Soup", something Hailey and Aidan's dad used to make when he was little I guess. It is a bucket with lake water and whatever the kids can find to add to it. Apparently when they are done making it we leave it out and the faries come and eat it. I don't know the whole story but they sure love making it.

It rained, not a full out rain but a nice steady drizzle, most of the day on the 4th. We toughed it out, played outside, cooked outside and held out for fireworks. The kids were a mess and finally convinced us to let them go swimming (why not they were already wet). So we stripped them down and they went skinny dipping. I think it was the most fun swimming that they had the whole trip.

Hanging on the boat. Sunday was beautiful so we stuck around for awhile and went tubing (bad idea all 4 adults have muscles we didn't know we had that hurt!)

Growing Up. . .

I can't believe how grown up Brady has become lately, he is not a toddler anymore but ALL BOY! He is all about doing things on his own. He has pretty much potty trained himself in a week, gone swimming by himself and now owns his own two wheel bike (with training wheels). No more baby, but I am loving every minute of it!

Brady must just have stage fright, he sure was into dancing the other day. . .

We went swimming with Stie the other day and once Brady got used to his floaty he wanted nothing more than to do it on his own, he was swimming all round the pool, jumping off my legs and the side and doing it ALL BY HIS SELF!

Little Stinker

Brady's school put on their annual musical this weekend. Brady was supposed to be "Bob the Builder" and "Diego". He would sing and dance in the car and at home, we got the musical and he did NOTHING! Grandma had to bribe him with a big new truck just to get him on stage. The rest of the musical was cute, hopefully next year Brady will participate!

This is what everyone came to see. . . how exciting!

Indy 500 Weekend!

Brady's school did a Mini 500 for all the kids on Friday. They rope off the parking lots and each class gets to ride the bikes around the "track" in the parking lot. He loved riding the Lightning McQueen "bike" around for the race. The first lap around Stie had to push him, then he crossed the finish line and wanted to race again, so they raced again and he was off the start line before they could say go! After the races they had a cookout for all the kids and their families. It was a great way to kick off the 500 weekend.

On Saturday we went to the 500 Festival Parade, it was kind of hot but not horrible. Brady had a great time and really loved the big balloons and of course the Purdue band played with the trains (he loved the trains), we at least convinced him to call them the "stinky" trains! His favorite balloon was Sponge Bob, the picture of just him is what his face looked like when he saw the Sponge Bob balloon!

We had a wonderful weekend, it was such a great way to kick off the summer. . . yea!!!

Ahhhhh Summer!

I think the title says it all. . . ahhhh summer! The weather has been wonderful this week and yesterday Brady broke me and we got out the pool! He was beyond excited and I got to take some time and get a couple cute pictures. I'm going to ramble about how truly blessed I feel to be able to stay home with Brady and watch him grow and enjoy the simple things in life. I love the neighborhood and street that we live on. . . (18 kids under the age of 8 on our street alone). He loves to be outside and now that the weather is warm he is a happy kid, we spend most of the day and evening outside playing with our neighbors. Sometimes I just sit back and watch the pure happiness and excitment that the small things bring to Brady and thank God for the wonderful things he has given me! Anyways enough rambling here are some pictures. . .

Posing for GQ. . .

Brady was being super cute in his pool. He would bend over and put his hair in the water, water the grass with his watering can because "it looked thirsty" and "swimming"

Just a couple cute pictures. . .

Playing with the neighbors. . .

Eating "chocolate pie" with Aidan (our neighbor and one of Brady's best friends)

A random picture of Josh and Brady, I dressed Brady and then Josh without knowing (so he claims) put on the same outfit! Father and son matching day!

Just like Aunt Sarah!

Brady got out his Elmo music player the other day and started dancing over and over to "Shout". I grabbed the camera and thankfully he gave another performance. The video reminds me of a video my mom took of my sister Sarah dancing in our living room by herself to Mickey, she was a little older but still very cute. Brady is getting to be a good dancer, his moves have grown from just bouncing up and down to moving his arms. Very Cute!

I got a hammock to put on our patio as an early Mother's Day gift. It is wonderful and of course Brady thinks he needs to sit in it too! I love the expression on his face, he is growing up so quickly I can hardly believe it.

One of his new favorite games is "Ring Around the Rosie". We went to his gym the other day with our friends Hailey and Aidan and he was trying to teach Aidan how to play, they really just liked spinning in circles and falling down!

He decided that he needed to sleep in his bed backwards the other day. I didn't think he would stay that way but when I came up to check on him he had put his pillows together and was sleeping on them at the end of his bed. Apparently he slept in his rocking chair the other day too! What a silly boy!

Tattoos. . .

We did tattoos today and Brady wanted to put them everywhere, so we did! He now has tattoos on his hands, arms, face and stomach, very cute if you ask me. He is growing up so fast it seems hard to believe that he is already 2 1/2!

Any nice weather that we get we love to be outside. Brady's favorite place this year seems to be the playground. We don't have a playground in our neighborhood but there is one in the neighborhood next to us, just a short walk away. So it works out nicely for both of us, I get to walk/run to the playground, we play and then we walk/run home. . . exercise and play all together. . . great!