La Familia Bell


Saturday, May 31, 2008

Somewhere Over the Rainbow(s)

Today was supposed to be what the weatherman termed "a wash". He couldn't have gotten the forecast any more wrong today - yes, it was cloudy for the better part of the day but it wasn't the total rainout predicted. We went out for dinner and watched the stormclouds roll in as we finished. From there we went to the local WalMart and the skies opened up. When we came out, the rain had passed and there was a cool sunset under the cloud ceiling. The best part was not a single - but a DOUBLE rainbow! I don't think I've ever seen such a brilliant rainbow - especially one you could follow end to end. And there were two of them! Very cool. We took some pictures with our cell phones - along with a lot of other people in the parking lot. And I happened to have the video camera in the car as well. Click HERE for the pictures.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Dinner With Friends and Our New Babysitter (hmmmm maybe not lol)...

On Tuesday night we had our friends Chris, Korin and Kim over for dinner. This was not your conventional dinner party. Our friend Chris was the Chef for the night. He made a WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS gourmet meal!! The menu consisted of yolk topped proscuitto wrapped Scallops on a cauliflower puree for an appetizer, an asian salad with sugared almonds and mandarins, chipotle pork tenderloin with parmesan crisps, mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus and Korin's famous chocolate truffle cake. YUMMMM is all I can still say!! We had great food, great wine and a wonderful time with friends.

Now Kim had never or only once held a baby so after Korin got her fill holding Brady he was handed over to Kim. Here is the progression of the Kim holding Brady pictures....

awww sweet innocent baby!!! (Brady...not Kim!)




Ummm... wrong "bottle" Kim :)An AJ tradition is that anytime any of the "girl" friends come over they have to play on his sit and spin. Lisa and Kristen had a blast on the sit and spin on New Year's eve - we STILL have to blog those video clips!!! Kim had her chance to show off her skills on the sit and spin too!

A high 5 from AJ!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Brady's Nursery

Well Brady's nursery is finally coming together. The room was painted by Brian before we found out we were pregnant. At 1st I didn't care for the color, I thought it was a little on the darker side but now with what I have in the room, colors-wise it goes really well. Daddy put up the wall decorations the other day:

Brady is still not sleeping in the room yet - I put him in the crib once in a while during the day if I need to do something while i'm in the room, or while i'm upstairs, etc.

I debated at 1st using AJ's bedding BUT considering that EVERYTHING that was AJ's is now Brady's I figured new bedding wouldn't break the bank. Classic Pooh is the theme and I love it!

Brady's got one great closet! - this kid has so much clothing!!! this entire closet is 0-3 months right now plus I have 2 other boxes of "warmer" 0-3 months clothing for later in the summer. I also have between 10 -12 more boxes of clothing that go through 2T/3T.

We kept the dresser that was in the room originally - I just put the changing pad on top.
Here is our special sweetie enjoying his crib:
Nana Bell did this cross-stitch birth announcement for Brady:


On the other side of the crib we kept the queen bed that was in the room should we have people decide they want to spend the night. I still have some boxes to clear out of the room but for the most part the nursery is done! about time right?? :o)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Touch a Truck 2008

This past Saturday we went to the annual Touch a Truck event at one of the elementary schools in a neighboring town. AJ as usual had a lot of fun. He liked being able to go in a lot of the trucks, buses, boats and race cars and I think his favorite part was trying to make the horns beep on each of the vehicles. He saw the mail truck and asked if Papa Bell was in it. Shockingly - he did not want to go in the fire truck this year he just wanted to "see" it.







Click HERE to see more pictures

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Brady's 1st Bath

Brady had his 1st full bath and he was great for most of it until mommy decided to wash his hair. He wasn't too fond of that! Daddy did some creative photoshop for modesty's sake. AJ was very
happy to lend a helping hand while I was trying to bathe Brady.

Nice relaxing warm bath


still enjoying the bath -
Thanks for the cover up dad!


Mom HAD to wash his hair :)
and Brady was NOT a fan!


If looks could kill! lol


Click HERE to see more pictures

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Video from the Circus!

I was trying out some new functionality with GoogleDocs and YouTube. This post is similar to a PowerPoint presentation with 3 "slides" that include 3 videos I shot that day. Check them out!



Click on the arrows in the lower left corner to select each video.
Click on the icon next to the speaker (right corner of video window) to make the video bigger.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Baby Brady

Here is our little man showing some team spirit and hanging out in his swing


getting ready for a nap....


and... sleepy time!!!!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

A Trip to the Circus

On Saturday May 10th we took AJ and Brady to the circus. It was the 1st time for both boys and quite a long time for mommy and daddy. There was a pre-show an hour before the event and we had lots of fun with close-up looks at the elephants, acrobats, clowns and other performers. AJ even got to ride one of the clown bikes that was in the show!!!

Unfortunately the time of the show was right during nap time so AJ didn't get a nap before the show. He was out on dad's lap about 20 minutes into the show but mainly missed just acrobats. He woke up in time for intermission and then was awake for the 2nd part of the show. He got to see the cool elephants which he was so excited about. He's been calling it "the elephant circus" since we told him we were taking him to the circus.



Brady slept through the entire show waking up at the finale screaming for food. We had a great time at the circus.


Click HERE to see more pictures from the show.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

A Visit from Nana and Papa Bell

Nana and Papa Bell came for a visit to meet Brady on Sunday. They came bearing gifts for both kids and AJ had tons of fun with Nana and Papa. AJ kept them both entertained outside because it was a very nice day and when we were inside AJ made sure he had their full attention playing with Play Doh or reading books. He certainly wore nana out this time around!
Click HERE to see more pictures

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Interesting Tidbits

Birth Date vs Actual Date
One of the nurses told me yesterday that it's very unusual for a baby to actually be born in his/her due date.  I believe she told me it was around 2%.  A quick Google search says it's no more than 4-5%.  Go Brady!  Andrew was a week late. 
 
Andrew vs Brady
AJ weighed in at 7 lbs, 8 ounces and Brady at 7 lbs, 15 ounces.  Both boys were 21" at birth, but Brady has the edge here too by being a whopping 1/8" longer!
 
Baby Boom!
Indications are that we're in the midst of another small baby boom - at least in Hollywood anyway!  I can believe that - you should have seen the nursery at the hospital!  There were 12-14 babies in there!!  I don't recall quite as many when AJ was born.  Gotta love Wikipedia - they have a chart that shows an upward tick that has been growing since about 1998.
 
Another productive day at work.  Can't wait until vacation next week!

Momma's Boys

AJ finally got to meet his little brother and he was very excited. He wanted to hold him, gave him kisses and at the end of his visit asked if he could take Baby Brady home to take him to school and show him to his teachers. He settled for a printed picture to take to school instead. I'm so excited for my boys and here is a picture that i'm sure i'll have to print in a few years when they are bickering and fighting over every little thing LOL


Click HERE to see more pictures