The Missouri Mosers

Carters Birthday

2011-04-03T22:43:00.001-05:00

Carter turned 2. Yeah!!! Now we hope that doesn’t mean terrible. We found a super cool on sale gift for him, a ginormous inflatable ball that he can actually climb into. Check out his photos.

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Winter Turns to Spring

2011-04-03T22:26:00.001-05:00

Spring is finally here. Carter had some picnic fun in the backyard. Thought these photos made him look old.

Since we had a lot of snow and lost 10 school days, which Brad spent on his back because of some sickness, we thought we would share some fun photos.

Merry Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T21:24:00.005-06:00

We want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We have had another spectacular year and we are so very grateful for the many blessing we have in our lives. For health and strength, for food and shelter, for love and family and friends. We hope we can share our love and peace with others.

Carter and Ellie sure had a great year and are truly growing and waxing strong in the gospel. They love each other and are mostly obedient to us. They always find ways to make us laugh and enjoy some of Ellie and Carters Christmas day and singing.

Ellie decided to spread some Christmas cheer.

End of 2010 Update

2011-01-11T20:22:00.004-06:00

Since the last update I believe we were living in another state. I have now also been officially called as the blogger in our family and therefore I will strive to magnify my calling and post somethings from the end of 2010.

Lets start with OCTOBER Halloween:

Carter went as a monkey and totally can imitate the monkey noise. He also enjoyed his time trick-o-treating (see video). Ellie went as a baker. She got a cupcake maker for her birthday on Sep 30th. It only makes a single cup cake but its pretty good. Claire and Brad just found some random clothes and went as dancers. It worked for the ward party.

And if you want to see something very pitiful see why you shouldn't be a Grinch on Halloween.

Sleepless in Washington

2010-08-02T01:05:00.004-05:00

After a few weeks @ BYU, Claire and the kids went to spend sometime with her family in Washington leaving Brad to fend for himself (fastfood). The kids loved it. They went to the beach and played at the water park. Nana and Papi were in heaven.

Brad joined them a week later to present at the American Association of Physics Teachers in Portland. They enjoyed some fun foods especially the Jack in Box tacos, yes.

Brad and Claire then headed for a weekend get-away in Santa Cruz for Brad's 10 year reunion. Crazy. Santa Cruz was as beautiful as ever.

Happy Birthday Claire 2010

2010-08-02T01:02:00.002-05:00

I know this is a little late, but what's that saying... better late then... well you get the point.

Summer time and the livin is easy....

2010-06-11T20:44:00.006-05:00

Actually summer time and the livin is easy...or easier. Since the last update we had christmas in OUR house then spent some time with Justin and Laural in OH (blast!). Claire continued to teach math at the college and Brad continued to teach at the high school. He says the year went by fast. We bought a used riding lawn mower, since the free push mower wasn't cutting it (get the pun?). So now Brad has to spend 2 hours cutting the lawn with 20 min breaks during to reattach the belts (fun,not).

Ellie and Carter played soccer. Well Ellie was officially on the team Carter continuously made attempts to gain access to the field in many cases succeeding. Ellie started out a bit timid but quickly became aggressive and serious. By the middle of the season she was grabbing and pulling and calling for the ball and taking shots. If you ask her she scored like 12 goals a game. Really it was more like 3. Not too bad still. You can view both kids soccer abilities in the video below.

For the summer Brad started playing with the 1st team on the Springfield Demize, yes trying to keep the dream alive. Unfortunately and fortunately he had to give it up for this summer to continue research at BYU again this summer. He is happy and sad about that. Now you will find him drooling away at a computer somewhere in the ESC. He is basking in the world cup action kicking him self for not going to South Africa his native land.

Claire is looking hot. She is currently preparing for a 10k or 10 thousand meter run on July 24th in Santa Cruz, CA (Wharf to Wharf). She is awesome acquiring unique culinary arts skills which is greatly appreciated by Brad. She has recently cut her hair hence the hot part at the beginning. See pics below but dont look twice men. She is very much enjoying laying by the pool and playing in Utah with her friends and children. Oh what a life.

Since we are in Utah we would love to get together with many of you just give us a call or email us and we can try and make it happen if we havent already.

PS the video is longer than wanted you might skip to the middle if not family, however I am making up for 7 months of not posting so maybe just sit through it.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-05T14:57:00.002-06:00

Well, I should probably recount the happenings of our summer since there's been no blog posts to speak of since June! But to spare all the boring details, we're back in Missouri from our Utah internship this past summer, we bought a house, everything is back as it was. Brad's high school team that he coaches just finished their season this week, and don't'cha know his indoor soccer team that he plays on has tryouts this weekend. These things have a way of working out impeccably. I'm teaching one class at the local college and enjoying it. Ellie is 4! and enjoys her preschool class twice a week (the local Sunbeam mom's put it on) and Carter is cute as a button.

I know all you really want to see is photos. So here are some from our most recent Halloween excursions! We had a ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night (costume #1 was Snow White and a pumpkin) and then real Tricking or Treating (Cinderella and a pumpkin (not one of those magic ones that turns into a coach, mind you)) on Halloween night with some friends. Carter and I had fun chilling in our trunk passing out candy (see photo #3). We had a lot of fun with our kids and friends. And yes, Ellie's candy is hid somewhere so I don't find it and eat it all. :)

I did Ellie's hair both nights and was quite happy with how it turned out.

Hope you all had a terribly ghoulish holiday as well! I cannot lie - I have already begun listening to Christmas Music!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Moser crossword Try for yourself

2009-10-25T22:16:00.004-05:00

I was just messing around with some free download software and threw this together, thought yall might have some fun trying to get the right answers. The word bank is scrambled at the top of the clues. Enjoy.

Brad

Update

2009-06-23T17:49:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update on our familia! We made it to Utah! After Brad finished out his school year, we had one day of packing/cleaning, then a day of moving stuff into storage, another day of cleaning/packing, and then we were off. Oh yeah, and we happened to buy a new car amongst those things as well. We traded in the old Honda for a 99 Yukon. It is white with charcoal trim and looks really nice. We are very happy with it and very happy we had a car to drag all our junk from Missouri to Utah with. Which brings me to....

We moved! We are in Provo! We've really enjoyed the couple weeks that we have been here. We've seen lots of old friends and still have yet to see a couple due to vacations and swine flu (seriously). The weather has been absolutely fantastic. It's just now started to feel like summer time where as the last couple weeks have been more like spring. Lots of rain. In fact, lightning struck the Angel Moroni on top of the brand new Oquirrh Mountain Temple in one of the storms, blackening his trumpet, arms, and face. Weird, huh? And now that the summer has turned warm, I decided to...

vacation in Washington! I leave with the little kiddles this Friday to go visit my family for two weeks in Washington. Brad will come up a few days after me and come home a few days before. I am so looking forward to it. But it does mean my summer is about half over. Which is sad, but it means that we will be....

moving into a new house soon! Barring an anthrax fiasco, we should be receiving our closing documents on our house tomorrow in the mail which we can read, sign away our lives, and mail on back to purchase our first home! It is a beautiful 1400 sq. ft. home on an acre in the land of Webb City, MO. We can't hardly wait.

That is the update on our family right now. Life is good and crazy, and we absolutely are loving it!

Moms will love this

2009-05-06T11:52:00.002-05:00

Okay, so Ellie didn't really spit up much as a baby. Man, were we lucky! I just have to share this little nugget of a story that just happened with Carter.

I was nursing Carter and he kind of fell asleep, then he started waking up and fidgeting and crying. He's been doing this these last few days and I kind of thought maybe he was just tired. I asked Ellie to go get a burp cloth for me. So I just kind of held him away from me to see what he would do. Then he decided to let it all out - first came the poop. He's been pooping every 4 days since birth practically and he just pooped yesterday, so I was a little surprised to hear how much poop he was coming out. Then he burped, which was fine. Then he pooped more. I decided to put my nursing pad back on and as I was in process, up came everything he just ate, seriously. All over my nursing pad, all over my hand, all over my one and only nursing bra, all down my stomach, down onto my freshly laundered khaki pants, and all over the leather couch. Just after, Ellie showed up with the burp cloth... just seconds too late...

So I cleaned up as much as I could sitting down, then decided to lay him down while I went and changed virtually every piece of clothing I had on. Luckily, Carter completely missed all of my shirts so they were still clean! I came back to my poopy child and and was anticipating poop covered pants, but surprisingly, it all stayed in the diaper! Yea! So I changed him, and as I was putting his clothes back on, I noticed that he did actually wet through all of the clothes he had on (onesie, shirt, and overalls) with pee! So I then I had to change all of his clothes, too!

But the biggest reward, because you know he had to feel better after getting all of that out of his system, was the giant smiles he flashed like crazy once he was dry and clean!

PS Ellie can't wait for Carter to grow up! She is currently playing hide 'n' seek with Carter... Amazingly enough, Carter continues to be in the same spot every time she finishes counting! Amazingly enough, she keeps on playing!

Carter Smiles!

2009-05-01T10:49:00.004-05:00

I think Carter's first smile was March 30. It was just a flash of a smile, but I remember that was the day he first did it. On Easter, April 12, Carter did a HUGE smile for his Gma at Easter dinner. We all looked at him and with lots of concentration and encouragement, we got him to smile again! Since then, he's getting better and better at it and we just love it! There's is absolutely nothing better in the world than making a baby smile! I can't wait til he starts giggling, too. But I am so content to sit and make him smile every day! I think he is pretty dang cute!

At his 2 month check up, he weighed 9 lbs 1 oz. He's gained a pound and a half in one month. He's also grown 2 1/4 inches since birth. I don't know percentiles, but what does that matter anyways? The kid is happy and healthy and loving life!

Brad and I are currently in process of buying a beautiful home. We are also getting ready to start packing (meaning I've thought about packing but I haven't done a thing yet). We are leaving around June 1 to head out of Missouri and make the trek west to Utah (just for the summer)! We also just found out that Brad made the outdoor soccer team for the Springville Demize! He was on the indoor team through the winter, then tried out this Spring for the outdoor team. We weren't sure he was going to make it, especially since he could only play for May and then we would be gone. But he made it! I think he'll get in 5 games before we move. He is very excited. The league he is in is called PDL, which is the league that BYU plays in, I believe. Congrats to Brad! We are so excited for him! Now, if only he could get paid for it....

One month old

2009-03-28T16:13:00.002-05:00

Carter turned one month this week. Both he and I are doing pretty well. We have our moments, but for the most part, we do good. He has done surprisingly well at sleeping during the night which we are soooo grateful for. Heavenly Father does answer prayers!

I think I was alone with him during the day for only 4 days out of the whole first month. Brad took off the whole first week after Carter was born. I had one day by myself and then my sister flew in, and then my mom and aunt too. They all stayed for about a week. Then I had 3 days alone and then it was Brad's Spring Break. And Carter turned one month right after Spring Break! I loved having my family here and I miss them a ton. I also loved having Brad around so much.

I wanted to brag, I mean TELL a little about my labor with Carter. I had wanted to go all natural, but who knew if I was actually capable of it. In the weeks leading up to his birth, I had measured 3-4 cm, then 5-6, then the day he was born, I went in to the doctor measuring 7-8 cm! The doctor told me I was going to have a baby today! At this point, I had had no pain or labor at all. And I didn't start having pain until about 15 minutes after the doctor broke my water. Then Brad helped me through all my contractions. At about 6pm I was getting to the point where I could handle about all I could. At this point I was fully dilated and they called the doctor in. So I had been in pain for about 45 minutes. :) Pretty soon after the doctor came in, I was all ready to push, but was politely asked to hold it (btw, it is totally and completely unnatural to hold back when you feel you need to push a bowling ball out of a sand dollar-size hole!). I held back for about two contractions before they were ready for me to push. And in the one contraction, I pushed once and Carter's head came out. They told me to wait a second. Then in the same contraction I pushed once and his body came out! All in all, I think I was in pain for a little over an hour. And only about 30 minutes was really bad pain. And just to keep myself from being persecuted too much, it was REALLY painful there at the end. I was told I was screaming in pain, but I don't really remember...

So Carter is here. Ellie loves being around him. We are working out having 2 kids around, though it is different. We are all doing pretty good.

And lastly, Brad has been accepted into a summer research program for the summer months at BYU! So from June-August, we will be back in Provo living it up in the Utah weather!

No photos for now, but keep checking back!

Another Carter movie

2009-02-24T14:28:00.003-06:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 1....

2009-02-24T09:05:00.003-06:00

We're still at the hospital. It was a decent night. Let's just say we caught up on all the reruns and sportscenters. Carter slept and ate and slept some more. Claire actually changed his second poopy diaper, and it sounds like we'll be changing the third soon. lol.

Claire is feeling really good. She was able to shower and get ready for a new day as a new mother. She is liking the non-baby in the belly feeling. We are surprised at how smoothly this is all going. Carter is usually in his grumpy face but Claire has been able to break him for a few smiles.

Claire says breakfast was good.

Carter Bradley Moser

2009-02-23T19:18:00.003-06:00

Carter Bradley Moser

2009-02-23T19:12:00.001-06:00

H2O....

2009-02-23T17:21:00.002-06:00

So about 20 minutes ago our doctor came in and checked Claire. Claire is doing great. In fact better than great. She currently has not felt any large doses of pain. Dr. said she is at an 8. The baby (he who has not been named) is doing great. He is still a sitting a little high. But he is coming down. Things are progressing little by little. Dr thinks perhaps sometime by 7pm this evening. Claire is doing great.

But how about Claire reaching an 8 and not really having any pain at all. I told her she is just superwoman but you know.

Still waiting...

2009-02-23T17:00:00.002-06:00

Well after a soda brought to me from John, Abby, Krista and Ellie, I am feeling a lot better. My stomach was a little upset but it is much better. Since it had a been a whooping 2 hours of waiting I had to receive some more sustenance. Thanks to Mom who indulged me with some classic McD's. Now I am doing just fine.

Claire is also doing well. She is just chillin with some IV and stuff. I will try to keep you posted.

To the Hospital

2009-02-23T14:44:00.002-06:00

Well we made it to the hospital. Claire had an appointment this morning at 10:45am and she was told to come to the hospital. She called me at work and I excitedly let them know that I had to leave to go to the hospital. Bummer, I have to miss some school(in a mono-toned voice). My class was pretty excited probably because I was leaving them.

So we are here quite possibly having a baby sometime. Until next time....

Moser "Currier and Ives" Christmas Card

2009-01-04T18:55:00.006-06:00

So the Moser's didn't get around to sending out a Christmas card this year. We were planning on making a little video and emailing it to all our friends and family. But instead, we made a video and we are posting it online for all to see! Thank you technology! And a special thanks to Brad for putting together this splendid video.

As for an update on our family:

Brad is still teaching high school physics but took on soccer coaching as well this school year. He is currently fulfilling his life-long dream of playing professional soccer - sort of! He tried out for a semi-pro indoor soccer team - the Springfield Demize - back in November and made it on the team! They have had 2 games and he has played in both. They travel up to about 5 hours away to play the other teams in their league. He really enjoys it (not the traveling part, the playing part) and we were blown away that he made the team because he hasn't really played organized soccer in about 10 years! The season has about 8 more games and continues through February. We are very proud of his accomplishments this year and we'll try and post some photos of his game-changing moments in the future!

I was able to teach some lower level math classes at a community college this past year. It was a great job where I was able to work just a few hours a week but get paid pretty well. But I am done as of this past semester because we are due to have a baby boy March 2 (hopefully sooner than that)! We still don't have a name picked out for him. He just might be He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It's been a while since we've had a baby around the house, but at least this time I'll have two really good helpers around!

Speaking of Ellie, she is really fun to have around. She turned 3 in September and keeps us laughing everyday. Just today, she went to Primary for the first time at church and did really great! She is a pretty well-mannered kid and we can't complain about anything, really. She picks up song lyrics super fast - she knew tons of Christmas carols this past season as that was all we've listened to since about November 1. She loves to dance and sing and cook with Mom. She is looking forward to having a baby brother and suggests names to us often - some of her best are Grass, Tree, Diego, Dad, and Book. We've watched a little baby a few times this year and Ellie is an excellent helper. I know she will be a fantastic big sister!

We hope you are all doing great and that 2009 is a year full of wonderful memories and experiences!

Love, the Moser's

Fall Fun Times and Announcements

2008-11-06T10:58:00.007-06:00

Newest News from this fall - We're having a baby boy! No names chosen yet, so feel free to post with your suggestions! March 3 is your deadline!

Halloween was also very fun. Ellie was really shy at first. She didn't want to say anything at about the first 5 doors. So Brad threatened her that if she didn't start saying, "Trick or Treat," that we would go home. And wouldn't you know, the very next house she was all smiles and said, "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" no problem! By the end of the night, she was telling us to "Wait right here" about 10-15 feet away, while she walked all by herself up to the door, knocked, and did her thing. It was just about the cutest thing I've seen - a tiny little independent 3 year old knocking on a door asking for candy. The Halloween candy is still around, though the chocolate pieces are dwindling faster than the others (who me?). She was a cute little witch.

And lastly is a little video of Ellie doing some dot-to-dots. It's a little long. More for the grandparents if you know what I mean. Just showing off my genius child. This was the first time her and I had really sat down and talked about how to do a dot-to-dot and she picked it up pretty fast.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm doing good with pregnancy. A little sick in the beginning, but all smiles now. Still teaching school twice a week. I realized I only have about 5 lessons for each of my two classes left before I'm all done! That is thrilling, to say the least! I've started listening to Christmas music (online streaming of Utah's KOSY station, you can hear it in the background of the dot-to-dot video). I think November is going to fly by and Christmas will be here before we all know it. Well, Thanksgiving will be here really really before we know it! The Holiday season has begun!

Facebook Nation

2008-10-07T14:05:00.002-05:00

So I hate facebook. I don't have a profile or anything so I can't actually contact any of the people that I find that I haven't talked to in a while. But it is still super easy to spend an hour here or there just looking for people. Which I just did. Meanwhile, Ellie was busy...

She did all the dishes, made kool-aid (pitcher, sugar, kool-aid, water, stir), ate who knows how many hershey kisses, and I just found her inside the bathtub watching a spider crawl around. Seriously, it was only an hour. How did she do all this?

Growing Pains

2008-09-23T14:54:00.004-05:00

Ellie has grown up! I don't know when it happened, but she did it.

I had been telling her for a little while that it was almost time for a nap. She wanted some yogurt, so we sat together at the computer and ate some yogurt. I told her when it was gone that it was time for her to go to sleep. We finished, and she said, "Now I'm going to go to sleep." And away she went. Did I really think she was going to go put herself into her bed and go to sleep all alone? No way!

So I finish up on the computer and quietly walk back to her bedroom to find her all snuggled in a blanket in her very own bed and very much asleep! How in the heck? When did she learn how to do this???

As I thought back on the last couple of days, she has repeatedly asked to do things on her own, somewhat successfully. Just today she wanted to make her own cheese roll-up (grated cheese on a tortilla melted, rolled-up) and did just about everything for that. She even set the timer and took it out of the microwave and all that (though we did happen to break the handle on the microwave... oops). She also poured/spilled her own glass of lemonade. And then proceeded to clean up the mess that she had made, telling me, "I got it, Mom." I have no idea what the mess even looked like because she had cleaned it up before I got to see it! Yesterday she made the lemonade pretty much all by herself. She can practically shower herself these days. She is so smart and so grown up! Her 3rd birthday is in one week and I can hardly believe it.

So I guess what you do when you're kid starts to grow up is have another kid! That's right. We never officially blogged the announcement, though many of you know, we are expecting baby #2 March 2. Well, I'm expecting it to come sometime in February, but we'll see. We have our ultrasound scheduled next week to see if we are having a boy or girl - yes, we are finding out this time around.

I also chopped Ellie's hair again. This time to just about chin length. She looks pretty cute and loves that she doesn't have to hold her hair back when she drinks from a drinking fountain. I'll have to post a photo soon. Pretty cute, grown up little girl!

Body Slammy

2008-07-14T19:35:00.002-05:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

June - Haircuts, Naps, and Mom

2008-07-02T16:03:00.006-05:00

I decided Ellie needed a haircut a couple months ago. I kept asking her after her baths if she wanted me to cut her hair. She always said no, until now! Her hair is so thin that it didn't really take long at all for me to do it! I'm impressed with my mad hair cutting skills! Let me know what you think!

Sometimes Ellie decides not to take a nap. She thinks she is too big for naps. This was one of those days. At about 4:30pm she walked into the living room, turned on the TV and crashed, hard, on the couch, PROVING that my daughter is not too big for naps. I think I'm winning this war, for now.We also made a fort for the first time when Brad was out of town. Ellie LOVED it! She colored in her fort as well as had a little snack and a balloon inside from Father's Day.
She looked especially cute and grown up this day...

One day, I didn't want to sit outside while Ellie played in the pool, so we turned her pool into a taco and put it in the bathtub! This way she could be naked (as she wanted to be) and also warm! She didn't want me to take this picture. That's why she is hiding.
Lastly, my Mom came for a visit this past weekend. I thought I took more photos than this, but it turns out all I had from her trip was this one picture and Ellie actually took it. My mom also ended up accidentally erasing all her photos too! So sad! I bet she's regretting that recent switch from film camera to digital!

Our Terrific Toddler!

2008-06-19T14:39:00.004-05:00

So I promised swimming photos!
This is how we have to fill up our pool because we don't have a hose (well, we do now, but not then). The pool has to rest right up against the brick wall right at the spicket. Ellie knew all too well how to fill up her pool more!

This picture, she was totally bent down like the previous photo. And then right as

Can you tell what's wrong with this picture????There's an Ellie-belly getting into the counters!
Ellie is also potty-trained now. It took, oh, about 2 days before she was good to go. We still have maybe 3 tiny accidents in a week - just a little pee in her panties. But she's got the whole process down. We are very proud of her, and it appears that she is pretty proud of herself too. Can we praise her potty skills too much? And lastly is a photo of Ellie. She sometime requests my ab video as her movie to watch. This is how Ellie works on her 6-pack.Ellie is really fun to have around. She has imaginary pets and friends. But with her "friends" all she really does is discipline them just like we discipline her. We'll often overhear her saying, "What did I just say? You need to go to time out!" as she's talking to her "friends." She also enjoys jumping off our furniture. She recently jumped off our ottoman right on to her mushy bowl of raisin bran, showering our newly purchased leather couches in milk-branny mush. Oh yeah, with a few raisins for good measure... Such a joy...

Our house is a very very very fine house

2008-06-11T19:34:00.003-05:00

Okay, so there aren't two cats in the yard, nor will there ever be! But we love our new house, or half a house, technically. It's a duplex. Take the virtual tour with a spectacularly excited tour guide...me! Okay, I'm really not that exciting during the tour, but it works and you get to see our house in action! Plus Ellie is in there a little bit too. If you want my new address, email me or post a comment and I'll let you know!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are doing really great in our new place. We've been here about 6 weeks. Brad is done with his first year of teaching and I just started teaching an arithmetic class at a local community college. Brad is umpiring/refereeing different sports games through out the summer. We are settling in for the next little while! Ellie is super cute and a lots of fun. She loves swimming! I'll have to get the pictures of her swimming in our "pool" up here soon.

Like daughter, like father

2008-05-22T10:29:00.002-05:00

One time when Ellie's aunt was babysitting her, Ellie fell sleep all bundled in this recliner chair. She slept pretty soundly and looks very comfortable.
Not a week later, her Dad fell asleep in precisely the same way, all bundled and cute. He slept pretty soundly too. Can't say much for if he was comfortable, though.

Easter 2008

2008-05-22T10:15:00.003-05:00

I know Easter was forever ago, but we have some cute pictures of Ellie. And that's what you all really want to see anyways! We dyed Easter Eggs for the first time with Ellie. She really liked to plop the eggs into the dye. Her G-ma made her this easter egg dress. She kind of looked like she was wearing a lederhosen dress with her braids, puffy button-up shirt underneath, and the big suspender buttons.

She was eager to try and taste it after she figured out you could take the shell off. She took one little nibble followed by, "I don't like it." But at least she tried it, which is more than I can say of me when I was that age!

This was her Easter dress. It had panties to match. Very cute and she loved it. Almost as much as she loved the Strawberry shortcake we had for dessert...

Spring Break

2008-05-12T15:57:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the long wait in between posts. I've got a lot to catch up on! Here goes!

Spring Break!

Brad had a week off from school and we did a few fun things. We went bowling and out to eat a lot.

But our big thing was a trip out to Branson, Missouri to go to Silver Dollar City Theme Park. It was a blast!! We spent our first day in Branson at Silver Dollar City. We'd never really been to a place like this together. So we just jumped right in and went on the first ride we could find that didn't have a wait. It happened to be a log ride! No line for a reason. It seems like other log rides don't get you that wet, but this one sure did! I screamed. And we both got pretty wet. Great way to start off the day! We went on all the roller coasters we could and picked our favorite one - Wildfire - over and over about 5 times at the end of the day.

It was pretty dang fun. We stayed at a cheapy hotel and the next day we went out shopping at the outlet malls there. Found some great deals. All in all, a great vacation. All thanks to the Grandparents for watching Ellie so we could go!

Mrs. Moser

2008-02-28T13:26:00.003-06:00

I have entered the working world, again. I was a substitute teacher this past week for the first time. I am doing it only on Mondays and Tuesdays because that's when my mom-in-law can watch Ellie, and I really don't want to do it more than twice a week anyways.

On Monday I was at a Middle School. I started out helping with Band tryouts for about 15 minutes before the office realized one class didn't have a sub that needed one. So I taught 7th grade Social Studies all day (and right across the hall from me was another Mrs. Moser!!!). I read out loud a lot of the day and sort of lost my voice at the end. I turned some parts of their lesson into a game to make it more fun for me and for them. Then as the last period, which was my free period, was about to come, they asked if I could go help in the Special Ed classroom for one period. I said okay! So with those kids, we went out to recess and watched Love Bug. Pretty easy.

Then Tuesday I taught 4th grade. I am so not an elementary school teacher, let me tell you! You know in Kindergarten Cop how all the kids are running around like crazy? Yeah, that's pretty much how it was at the start. At like 8:30 in the morning my kids switch with my neighbor teacher's kids and by the time we were ready to switch, I looked out my door and her kids are all standing in a row, quietly waiting for my class, who, by the way, loudly stumbled from one classroom to the other in no particular line or formation whatsoever. I did get better by the end of the day. It is definitely an adjustment from secondary education! I was a grammar, writing, math, science, recess, game playing maniac! I mean, teacher!

I did enjoy substitute teaching much more than I thought I would. How much easier could it get - some one else makes the lesson plan, you just execute it. And I love that I can say no when I want to and that I'm done by 3 o'clock. I did miss Ellie terribly, though. She was so cute and was waiting at the door when I walked in after my first day of it. It pays $70/day and I can live with that. I will continue to sub each week and if there's more funny stories, I'll definitely let all of you know!

Goodreads.com

2008-02-22T18:10:00.003-06:00

Okay, coolest website ever! Okay, probably not the coolest ever. But I was really excited about it. It's just a website you can create your profile and put up books you've read, want to read, and are currently reading. There are also groups you can join or make your own to have discussions in. And you can link it with all your friends to see what they've read or want to read, etc. etc. So check it out and make sure to let me know so we can be friends! Check it out!

Our Town

2008-02-18T13:12:00.003-06:00

Sunday was a rainy day and as we drove by the waterfall at the park in our town, Brad asked Ellie if after church she wanted to take a walk to the waterfall. Of course she agreed. I put aside my concerns of too cold of weather and we went for a little walk at the park in our town. Ellie loved it and it was good to get outside and walk for a little bit. We enjoyed racing from park bench to park bench and walking on the playground. Ellie loved it, as did I. I must give Brad the credit for our wonderful, wholesome recreational family activity. And this is just a little peak at our cute little town.

IT SNOWED!!!!

2008-02-04T16:19:00.005-06:00

Hooray for snow! We've been anxiously awaiting the snow I was told would come in Missouri. At the very end of January, we had our first snow storm! The town where we live, Neosho, was out of school for 2 days and Brad's school was out 1 day. Ellie was adorable in her snow get-up, which I must say rivals "The Christmas Story" except we're so happy she's still in diapers... She loved the snow and thoroughly enjoyed making and throwing snowballs, especially at close range.
Ellie would make the cutest little face when she was bracing herself for an incoming snowball. She'd scrunch up her face in a little smile. I tried to capture it.

Yes that's a diaper shot.
She also made a snowman with her Aunt Abby. It was just her size.

All in all super fun day in the snow. I'm good with Winter now, we can move on to Spring anytime!

The Poser

2008-02-04T15:48:00.002-06:00

Anytime I try to take a picture of Ellie in action, she just starts posing! Case in point here as I tried to get a photo of her playing air hockey. But no! She just plops her arm on the table and strikes a pose.
Here she is as I get a photo of her Aunt Abby painting her toe nails. All she does is smile, smile, smile.

So I decided to curl her hair and really let her shine and take some photos of her being cute. This is how we started out.

Then we got to these.

And we ended as we started:Just plain ol' silly! I love this kid!

Late Christmas Photos

2008-02-04T15:20:00.001-06:00

I guess it is high-time I post some photos from Christmas. I realize it is February. But today it is 75 degrees outside so that means it is warm enough to sit in the room where my computer is and not freeze to death while I update my blog! Plus posting in February helps us have Christmas spirit all year long, right?

This is a photo of Ellie with her Great-Grammy - Brad's Mom's Mom. They both loved playing with her dog Pixie.

Inside of Ellie's stocking were her favorite candy - lollipops!

This was her stocking present - a Mrs. Potatohead accessory kit. Yes, she already has a Mrs. Potatohead.

Ellie got a kitchen fridge and stove from her Grandparents for Christmas. She absolutely loves playing in it, especially when her G-ma makes her play-dough. Here Ellie is putting the oranges from our stockings into her fridge.

Christmas was just great. It was so awesome to be around so much family. Of course, I missed all or my family and we missed all our friends, but the Moser family was great to be around for Christmas.

This is a couple videos from Christmas. The first is Ellie playing baseball on the Wii. You also get to hear how all of us teach her how to play... It's no wonder she can't hit the ball! And what Christmas would be complete without Ellie singing carols. Play away!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Anyone ever been to a bar before???

2008-01-18T11:47:00.000-06:00

On Brad's last day off from school from Christmas Break I planned a little surprise for us. I heard about a place on the radio that had country western dancing and instruction on Wednesday nights. I did a little googling and found it online. Turned out it was a night club/bar. I thought if I told Brad he might not go along with it. So we left Ellie with my sister-in-law and went to the club. I gave Brad some hints about what we were doing and he guessed on the way there what we were doing. So we pull up to the bar and sit in the car for a little bit about how this is supposed to go down. Is there a cover charge? Do we just walk in? Will they ask for ID? Are we really going to walk into this bar?! So we got up the courage, laughing and smiling all the way in. There was no one up front so we walked on back to where the dance instruction was going on. It was about 5 couples, most of them over 55, learning how to country dance. The lady had us jump right in. It was hilarious watching old people trying to learn how to dance! Some of them were just awful!!! You should have seen the old men swaying their hips. We stayed for the hour and learned a little dance. It was pretty fun. We sat down at a table just for a bit and one of the waitresses came and asked if we wanted anything. We said no and she said maybe just some ice water? Brad said okay. So she brought me some water. And I drank it all. We were ready to leave, but then we had a new dilemna. What do we do with this glass of water? Do we take it back up to the bar and say thank you? Do we just leave it at the table? Did it cost something? Shoot... Should we just walk out? We had absolutely NO IDEA how to do this. Silly Mormons in a bar!!!! So there just happened to be these two 65 year old ladies leaving at the same time we were and Brad went over to them and said, "This is our first time at a bar and we're not really sure what to do with this glass of water." They smiled and told him he could just leave it at the table for the waitress. He started to walk back and then they motioned for him to come back over. They said, "You should probably leave a dollar tip for the water." So we left a dollar on the table under the glass and walked out! It was such a crazy experience! We went dancing at a senior's bar and had to ask two old ladies how to leave! How ridiculous! But is was hilarious and we'll always remember that night. :) Anybody else have some funny bar stories?

2008

2008-01-12T15:04:00.000-06:00

It's a new year! I'm sure this year will have many changes in store for us. I can't believe 2007 is over. It seems like just yesterday I was writing down my goals of 2007. Now who knows where that list is or what it said! But 2008 is in full swing. Here's some photos of our most recent little girl and the holidays.

At our little town square's Christmas Parade. Ellie loved all the floats and seeing Santa Claus on the fire truck.

We had an ice storm in mid December. I'm not sure if you can tell but this flag outside our home is completely frozen! The picture of the branches shows how the water just freezes completely over the whole tree. Our town was just fine power-wise but Joplin and parts of Webb City were out of power for days, I think 9 at the most. Brad had 3 days off from school for it.

Ellie and I watched "The Grinch" and I guess I took it a little too far... I just wanted to see if I could do it! And I could. Ellie has a cup on her head and her hair gathered around it. She wore her hair like this to the ward Christmas party that night. She had a red ribbon around it and a jingle bell. She was Cindy Lou Hoo through and through. We're thinking next year for Halloween Brad can be the Grinch, Ellie as Cindy Lou, not sure who I would be...

I'll put some more up of Christmas and beyond. Plus we have a funny bar story to tell everyone. Keep your eyes peeled for the next post. :)

Random Pictures from October

2007-11-19T14:47:00.001-06:00

Here are some picture updates from other activities in October. The library here every Wednesday has story time for young kids. The first one we went to was Fire Safety and the local fire fighters put on a puppet show for the kids. It was cute. Then they got to go outside to look at the real fire truck. Ellie climbed right up into the seat and wanted to push all the buttons. She loved the whole fire truck. Speaking of fire... (nice segue)

The first fire of the year! Ellie was enthralled to say the least. We were teaching her not to touch the fire and that it is really hot. She always stays a good distance away from it, thank goodness. Here she is sitting with her G-pa watching the fire roar. They sat like this, silent, for about half an hour.

Ellie Turns Two...and we fly to Utah

2007-11-14T13:10:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to Ellie!
Ever since we moved to Missouri, she has loved blowing bubbles outside. So we decided to have a bubble birthday! The party started outside blowing bubbles with my homemade bubble solution. I used pink dish soap to make it festive and glycerin which supposedly helps make bubbles better. I tried out the glycerin bubbles earlier in the week and it worked fine. However, when making it on a large scale in a punch bowl, it did not work as well (or maybe it was because someone was talking to me and I think I might have counted wrong or something! Arg!). The bubbles would pop almost as soon as they came off the wand. So we got the brilliant idea to use our hands. The kids loved this idea even more. That is, until the kids had to rub their eyes. Yup, dish soap in the eyes. Why didn't I think of that before? It happened to one girl first who was barely 1 year old. It thought Ellie might be smart enough not to do it. But I was proved wrong. Moments later, Ellie needed her eyes flushed too. They were a little red, and she did cry, but hey, it's her party and she can cry if she wants to. We had tons of cake and cupcakes and I tried to make the cupcakes look like bubbles, but I wasn't really sure how to do that. It seems simple, right? Yeah, I just couldn't make it work. We sent all the kids home with their own personal bubbles and lots of double bubble. And now whenever Ellie sees a gift bag with tissue paper sticking up, she says, "Ellie Birthday Party?"

The very next morning, the 29th of Sept, we flew out to Utah for my brother Stephen's wedding. Ellie was turning two on the 30th, so we did not purchase a ticket for her to fly out, but we did have to on the way back. She just stayed on our laps the whole time anyways! But we were honest, right? We got to stay with Craig and Meredith in Provo which worked out great. We love their little Brady. And this is an awesome photo I took just outside their home. I believe this was the day after it snowed in Provo (Yes, it really snowed the day we flew in! In September!) We had a great party with all our old friends and watched the BYU cougars win again. The next day was Ellie's real birthday. We didn't do a whole lot but had cake again and her Nana gave her a couple gifts as did Brad and I. It was pretty uneventful.

Two days later, Stephen and Brooke got married!!! It was so beautiful. We know it took forever to finally see this happen, but it did and we are so happy for them! Brooke looked so great! Ellie got her first taste of the temple and loved it. We have a picture of the temple on our phone and she loves looking at it and saying, "Picture temple!" Brooke and Steve had a lovely dinner/reception afterwards that was very intimate. It was fun to share that special day with them!

All in all, it was a fantastic few days. Brad loved the 3 day break from school he got to take. It made us more "home" sick for our friends and family in Utah and elsewhere. We loved every minute of being there. Our only wish was that we could have stayed longer! We'll have to come back for Spring Break!

Ohio!!!

2007-11-05T15:31:00.000-06:00

In September, Ellie and I got to travel to Ohio to visit my sister and her husband, Justin. It was there that Ellie discovered her passion...trains! Oh my goodness. Justin and his dad have a whole big room dedicated to model trains. It is very intricate and quite amazing. Ellie thought so too. She loved watching the trains go round and round. She would sit so still and when a train was about to go by in front of her, she would fold her arms (so she wouldn't touch it) and almost whisper "oh my goodness!" She was in shock! She absolutely loved it. I was told that she is the first young girl to want to have anything to do with the trains at their house!

We also got to go to the Cincinnati Zoo. The polar bear really put on a show for us. I also got to walk right along side an orangutan. It reminded me or Harry and the Hendersens! AND, a squirrel ran right across my foot!! I totally screamed. There were wild squirrels roaming the zoo and apparently, this squirrel was in much too much of a hurry to try and go around me so it went straight over my foot! I don't know why I screamed. Was I worried it was going to eat me or something? Ellie did end up falling asleep right before we saw her favorite - the elephants. But I think she had a pretty good time anyways. She was such a trooper and rode in the stroller and got carried around everywhere. She even let Justin hold her for minute, too.

Go BYU!

2007-11-05T13:39:00.000-06:00

Back in September, we were able to attend the BYU vs. Tulsa game in Tulsa. We randomly happened on the McMurry's blog and reconnected, found out they were in Tulsa and decided we could all meet up and go to the game together. We got to leave the kids at home and head out for some well needed adult time. We had a DELICIOUS BBQ before the game with Sam and Lacey and two of their friends and their beautiful home in Tulsa. The best part, though, was riding in Sam's rockin' no-top-or-sides Jeep. Even though the cougars lost, it was still fun. We ended up sitting right next to Tulsa's student section and we had some awful stares when we cheered for our cougs. There was actually one guy who thoroughly enjoyed flipping us off. Hey would yell, "Hey Mormon's!" and then so gentlemanly show us his finger. I must say, it was the first time I had ever been singled out and insulted for being LDS. I guess we're not in Utah anymore!

Go Royals!

2007-09-11T07:03:00.000-05:00

Our friends, Nate and Telisha and Sidney Packard, drove from Vermont to Utah a couple weeks ago and we were able to meet up with them and go to a Royals-Tigers game. And guess what? The Royals won! We all got free t-shirts just for coming! It was super fun to see them again. Here are a few pictures of us at the stadium.

Also, Ellie loves bubbles! If she sees them, she will do everything she can to get them. As she falls asleep at night, the word, "Bubbles" often escapes her lips. Thanks to Craig and Mer for introducing us to One True Media. It's super easy to do videos and photo montages. Check it out!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are settling in here. Brad and I get up a little before 6 everyday for Brad to leave by 6:30. Ellie has had a rough time adjusting here so sometimes she's awake with us, sometimes I have just got her to go back to sleep by the time I need to get up with Brad. Then Ellie and I hang out all day. We are living with Brad's parents, so his Mom and his little sister Abby (she's homeschooled) are around us too. Depending on the day, Brad will get home at maybe 5 at the earliest, and the lastest so far has been 8:30. He is volunteering his time with the soccer team at the school. So he likes to practice with them or watch their games. But it's going well for him. We went to our first high school football game last weekend and boy was it packed! There was traffic, crazy concession stand lines, tons of fans from both teams, the stands were packed mostly full! I guess it's really the only thing to do in a city of 10,000 people to go to the high school football game! We ended up killing them, which was fun. It poured down rain during the 2nd quarter (we had an umbrella) so it was a good thing we could leave Ellie with the parents!

We really miss Utah and I still feel like that is home for us. I just can't quite call this place home yet. A couple nights ago as Ellie was trying to get to sleep, she kept saying, "Home, home" or at least that's what it sounded like she said. But we are doing good here. I'm about to go Visiting Teaching today and I don't quite know how to go to people that don't have solid testimonies of the gospel and don't go to church. It is an awakening for us, this whole "real world" stuff. Any suggestions on Visiting Teaching In-actives, let me know!

September...

2007-09-07T10:15:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's already September. Fall is just around the corner and we are excited to be experiencing it in a new state. Here's a picture of the whole family out to dinner (plus a couple other friends) and another picture of Ellie's pretty bad bump on her head (the swelling had gone way down by the time we took this picture).

She hit it on the corner of our headboard on our bed. :( We ended up taking her to the hospital and she did have a CT scan done to her little tiny head. But as you can tell, the next day she was happy as a clam! Let's hope we don't have any more ER visits in this state!