Spring is Here!!!...wait...or is it Fall???

Cheers were heard all around the valley as the weather forecast predicted a low 80's high 70's for Sunday. And for the week it had been quite lower, especially at night. The live like you're on Mars experiment is over (for a few months) and we are able to go outside when the sun is still up. At a time when a lot of the country looks to get out the winter clothes and makes fewer plans for outdoor activities we are thrilled to remember why this earth can be so beautiful. Unfortunately, our over exposure to the climate requires that we get out our winter clothes even though we are experiencing the spring everybody else had 5 months ago, we get the chills because our bodies have forgotten what it was like to be cold.

We jumped at the first opportunity to have dinner outside in the back yard. Homemade hamburgers and fries with root beer. It was Keara's idea.

After all, we can't do things like ride motorcycles inside the house, now can we.

(Taryn enjoying a visit from her Uncle Robb)

TOP 7

To make up for my long hiatus from blogging I decided to spoil you all with not just some new and events but also to open up a little. Cheri did a favorite things lists a while back so I am going to do the same. Yes I have more than seven, but it will do for now.

7) NUMBERS - I don't know if this really qualifies as a favorite thing but I do have a thing with numbers, hence the top seven list vs a top 10 or top 5, also why I am hoping to get into finance.

6) READING - Two kinds really, and they fall into almost exact opposites. a) I like the fantasy genre, like Lord of the Rings, the stories of kings, wizards, swords and magic. I know, sounds very nerdy but I am able to get completely immersed in those kinds of books and finish a 300 page book in 2-3 days. b) On the other hand I like history, hence the history major at BYU. I like to discover the interesting facts and side stories that accompanied the main history of today's modern civilizations. I say the two are almost exact opposites because one is completely made up and the other is completely factual. However, the made up ones are based on the factual ones in terms of dialogue, society, culture, and warefare.

5) SERVICE - It seems to always be harder to receive it from someone but there are few things more satisfying, that just give you that good feeling ,than when you give service not expecting anything in return.

4) YARD WORK - I love having a house finally because I can do what I want to our yard. It's something I picked up from always helping my dad growing up. If it wasn't so hot and we had a little bit more money I could spend all day in the yard reworking are building something new.

3) COOKING - I'm not like Cheri because I don't like to experiment by creating my own recipes. But I love trying new things and then tweaking the recipes according to what I know I already like. I'm always bringing home a recipe from work written on a scrap of paper that I copied from the newspaper or some magazine. Again it breaks down into two categories. a) Breakfast foods. b) Desserts. I not into the making the main course stuff though I still bring those kind of recipes home for Cheri to figure out.

Puffy Oven Pancake as most people call it, but this one has a brown sugar and apple bottom, which when done right, not like the picture where the apples rose to the top, can make a nice carmalized bottom.

2) SPORTS - Like anyone didn't know this was going to be on the list. To get more specific about it. I like to follow sports and the statistical and historical sense. I don't care as much about watching every game as I like finding out who won and who is leading the league in wins, steals, TDs, blocks, whatever. I like rooting for the team that has been down for several years or hasn't wone the title in forever. That's why I picked up on the Red Sox, though I would have to say I am more of a D-Backs fan in baseball. In football its the BEARS and basketball the SUNS. It's hard to say who I like more between the last two. I've been spoiled living here and being surrounded by SUNS talk so I might say the BEARS are my favorite since I don't get a lot of them and I never been to a game. Whereas when we were in Utah and everything was the JAZZ I missed my SUNS just as much as the BEARS.

1) - read the next post.

My Three Girls

(Even though this one will be posted first, you're supposed to read the one above it first)

As I sit here and watch Keara try to draw an outline of her hand while the marker cap is in her mouth because that is how she gets it off, it is confirmed to me as it is every Sunday. (It's a good thing that's when I do my blogging) What I love and care about the most is My Three Girls, well, two girls, and a wonderful women, okay, one baby girl, one little girl, and an amazing wife.

We aren't thrilled with where we are at in life right now. The store set us back a few years and though we're trying to better our situation it is going slowly. Mostly my fault, but I realized today, we may not be able to afford much of anything right now but we have what's important. The Lord has given Cheri and I two beautiful girls.

Now, I know I have already shown these last two before, but I love these pictures that I have of my three girls.

Catch Up

Our big trip for the summer was towards the end of July. Cheri's family reunion in Duck Creek Village, southern Utah. We spent four days in this lodge right off the 14 between I-10 and the 89. It was great! All eight families got their own room and even with 6 babies under a year it wasn't chaotic or stressful. Amazing. We also went to Zion's park for a day. I had never been there, at least not that I remember. My family traveled a fair amount when I was younger, but unless there was a picture to remind me I was too young to have any real memories of a lot of them. Of course, we found a basketball court at a local chapel. We even picked up some liquid nitrogen to make our ice cream.

After the reunion we went to Provo to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gunn. Mom, Dad, Kerri and Heidi and their families showed up that night. So, we kind of had another mini reunion. It was so good to be in Provo again. We couldn't live there unless I was getting a masters or something but we have a lot of memories. I got to see my friends from where I worked. It seems everytime I show up we have a new baby. We also got to visit with Grant and Kelly which was especially nice. With the economy the way it is and how bad the housing market has turned in Queen Creek, the overall attitude is depressing. So it was 'so refreshing' to get out and be somewhere with people where hope isn't a faint idea hard to hold onto.

Well, if you've made it this far then you deserve to rewared with some pictures to tell the story, unless of course you are one of those that just skims over stuff until the pictures show up.

Here is a picture of Keara and Victoria (Grant and Kelly's) dancing to the piano music at the Gunn's in Provo.

Then check the slideshow below. Keara and Carter had a lot of fun together this trip. They are still content playing next to each other rather than with each other but they definitely enjoyed the other being close by.

Cousins Collide

August Rush

No, this doesn't have anything to do with the movie, though it was a good movie, besides the ending. The title simply refers to how quickly August came and went and after doing so well for a while, I didn't even get a blog entry in for the whole month. In truth when Cheri told me she started a blog it deflated my motivation to blog. I figured she would steal all my material and in contrast my blog would be very boring. Well, she doesn't use all of my material and my blog isn't always boring (see following video). Of course I just realized Cheri has already used the video, oh well, it's worth waching again. Besides we have different writing styles and this is still my way of letting my family know what I'm thinking since I still cary the label as the 'one who does not speak'. I guess I could also throw in a little more stuff about me now and then as well.
Random change of direction: Have you ever tried to write a paper where in the middle you literally just put in random words to take up space, all because you here the teacher only reads the first and last paragraphs to grade it? I heard stories about it in highschool but I don't think I ever was willing to risk the bad grade. Well, that's kind of what I'm going to do here. Hopefully I can come up with enough posts to quickly fill up the blog and people will skipp over parts like this one and just catch the tail end.
So, if you're really curious enough, you'll have to read japanese style(up to down) in order to keep up with what's happened and what is currently going on.

Independence Weekend

Que Sorte! (for you non spanish/portuguese speakers that's what luck) I have to include both because I'm never too sure which one I'm saying. Anyway, with the 4th being on Friday and I just happened to get the 5th off, Cheri and I found ourselves in an unusual spot. A three day weekend and nowhere pressing to go. After carefully considering our options we decided to give Aunt Linda and Uncle Dick a call. I thought there was a good chance they would be busy with their own family. But they WEREN'T!!!

It was so nice to be down in Tucson. We hadn't seen them since the BYU vs UofA game almost two years ago. I had seen Aunt Linda at the store once. But that was it. Aunt Linda was up to her usual, going all out for every meal. We felt like we didn't stop eating the whole time. Because when we weren't officially eating we were playing games and you know what that means, snacks!

Keara and Taryn took to them like a Grandma and Grandpa pretty quick and Linda and Dick returned the favor. I think they missed having very tiny/young grandchildren around. Keara got to go swimming again, which she has been doing a lot lately, while Uncle Dick and I enjoyed his relatively new HDTV.

We went to a ward barbeque for the 4th and then a rainstorm rolled through so we decided our time would be better spent playing games at home rather then finding out if any fireworks would be going off. So, no fireworks this year, but we really didn't mind. Thank you Aunt Linda and Uncle Dick for the great time!

Real quick. Taryn has become quite the crawler, sort of. She has been trying so hard to do it for the last two weeks that she gets so mad. The last couple days she had a little break thru and is starting to use her knees now instead of trying to stand up on her toes.

However, she finds it extremely difficult to do when her big sister wants a ride.

The Month of June

Alright, it's been a month since I last blogged and probably because we didn't do too much of anything exciting enough to write about. However, we did have some decent pictures and funny moments along the way. My apologies to Taryn and Cheri or anyone not named Keara. She seems to dominate our camera. But Taryn is changing every couple days (lets be realistic, the changes from one day to another are so minor that you would only notice them if you saw her every couple of days).

So, without further ado (whatever ado means) here are some photos and why they made the blog.

Cheri has been trying and trying to find a popsicle mold for this summer. But nobody had them yet and when they finally did, they were huge! I suggested using the ice cube tray, and we did, at first. Then one day Cheri found this water bottle ice cube tray. Long and skinny ice cubes to fit the mouth of a water bottle. Fill it up with some of Grandma's shake and broken shish-kabob sticks and voila!

Do you think she wants one?

And this is Keara after the popsicle. Okay, so, not really. I couldn't help take this one. Keara was feeling miserable with an upset stomach and this was the comfortable place she found on the bar stool. Of course, moments later she vomited all over the floor.

Maybe this is why she didn't feel so well in the previous photo (again I'm kidding). Cheri has officially brain/taste bud washed Keara into wanted, not willing to, but wanting to eat her cornflakes with peanut butter.

Yeah!!! Something about Taryn, though she still didn't make the picture. This is her new room that Cheri came up with.

Keara loves her nursery class at church. I think she likes it a lot better now that Daddy's isn't one of her teachers. This is a song that she picked up in nursery and that Mommy helped her perfect at home.

The Gift of Tongues

Oh, Look! More Lambas Br...uh Random Thoughts

We recently made a few changes inside our house. Nothing outside has changed except it's hotter and we don't let Keara go out near as often. Of course then we do have a compost pile Cheri has put together, which is just another reason not to let Keara go out.

But on the inside, we finally did it! We got a pet, or two, or three. Cheri and I spent part of our date night at Wal-mart buying some goldfish for Keara. It was quite comical as the guy dumped half of our fish and water onto Cheri's pants at the store. Somebody told us that they would give you free fish if the ones you bought died in less than 72 hours. Well, ours didn't make it 12 hours. So, we went back and got this guy instead.

Keara has appropriately named him Blue. We tried to get another name out of her, something more interesting or original and she came back with Green and Yellow. So Blue it is. Keara could give or take him, but Cheri is quite attached. I think its because she is incharge of feeding him every morning, you know, the whole motherly connection thing.

Cheri also got tired or our white house. Here is what used to be Taryn's room but is now Keara's room, though it will be Keara and Taryn's room again when she is older or another baby comes along. Inspired by some of the houses of some of our friends Cheri did one wall as you see here and the rest of the room is divided into the Neopolitan look. Vanilla bottom, strawberry top and chocolate in between.

At last we got to our kitchen. We have had the inclination to paint it red since we moved in but at the time were so tired of painting the rest of the house we didn't want to mess with it.

And the final change can be shown here in this picture below. Have you figured it out?
Yes, we have friends! And no it's not a ward activity, though that is where all of our friends come from. But after moving around so often in our college lives we have almost been here for two years (end of the summer). We have always found people we liked but because of being around them for so short of a time it was harder to establish the deeper relationships. Here we have found some really good and genuine friends that we love being with and feel the same in return. (This refers to friends we have made since we have been married)

Random Thoughts on a Rarely Cool Sunday in May

I don't have anything to write about this week, at least not one event in particular so I thought I would just post some pictures, because we know that's all you're really here for anyway. Anyone who wants to know what's really going on can read Cheri's letters. But these are a few that have a short story to go with them.

Ahh, Candy Land. Our Secret Santa gave this to us and Keara is getting closer to understanding games. This one is great because she gets to go over her colors and look at the pictures of treats. But what this picture really shows is us having FHE, that's right, Family Home Evening. Which was never very strong in our family and disappeared while running the store. But after being a little inspired by our friend's blog (see the Papas) we have been better at doing it the last several weeks.

So, Cheri got the girls all ready for the day and I don't know the full story, but I think while she was helping Taryn, Keara fell in the still full bathtub. Maybe she just climbed back in, I can't tell if her hair is wet from the bath or from having just gotten it done. Either way all of her clothes were completely soaked!

Dad came down from Prescott and dropped a box of mostly clothes that he had found in the dungeon (part of the downstairs that doesn't have any cement or insulation or anything really). Inside were some of my clothes from highschool (as well as Stacey's dress) and some pool toys. I decided to put some on to prove how I took good care of my clothes in highschool. Well, Keara apparently agreed with Cheri about my highschool days. Good Riddance! She started to freak out and cry when I put them on. We have a video of her pleading for me to take them off because they are scary but it came out to dark and sideways.

Grandma Moore got her a wrinkle-free dress. Other than that there isn't much to say about this one. We just have to ask Keara every other day or so why she is so darn cute!

My Three Girls. Since Sundays are my only complete day home I have to remember to get the camer out as often as I can to come away with some pics of Cheri. Ignoring Taryn's mohawk, aren't they adorable.

Moore Idol

Recently, we decided to quizz Keara on her knowledge of songs because every night and almost every time we are in the car she wants to hear the same songs. She did such a good job performing for us that we had to get out the camera and asked for an encore.

I give you, K-ra! (applause)

B - rad

Braden J Moore (that's me)

Unlike Cheri, I have plenty of pictures, they just always happen to be with one of our girls.

I was talking with Cheri the other day about my writing skills. We had just read Dean's post on our Phoenix Suns blog and the ability he has to draw emotion into it. I used to consider myself an above average writer, but then I became a history major. And everything has to analytical, there can't be fluff, and so basically the writing is really boring. So with that said, I apologize to those who have to read my stuff by way of some family/friend obligation and thank you for pushing through it. I know you really only check the blog for the pictures anyway:)

Well, with that said, I don't have a lot more to say because there isn't a whole lot to me right now. Like Cheri I have lost a lot of weight and I'm almost to where I was when I got back from my mission. So, definitely the lightest I've been in 5 years. I play basketball every morning around 6 am for 1-2 hours depending on the day. Six days a week of that and work keeps my occupied. I'm working for USPS in Mesa, about a month now. I like the work enough, I just don't like how little the hours have been and I don't care for the time of day I'm working either. Neither are what I thought they would be. So I am keeping my options open to any new thing that may come up though I'm not in a constant search.

I still love my sports (phoenixsunsfanz.blogspot.com) working in the yard (we'll finish it some day) and being with my family (be it watching movies, playing games, or... ahem...just being silly).

Not going to bother explaining this one, let's just say it is in honor of Nate the Great.

Ri

My Cheri A'Moore

It is Mother's Day as I write this post and how very fitting that it's Cheri's turn in the blog spotlight!

Of the four of us, she is definitely the busiest! Besides taking care of our two girls she continues to do data entry for Brent, a little for Kerri & Steve, and has a couple piano students. She has also picked up some work with a friend in the ward who makes wooden signs with vinyl lettering. Oh, and she maintains the house and has great dinners ready for me when I get home. And if you were to go over some of the older posts you would see some of the many different projects she is always involving herself in (the penguin suit, Keara's cat costume).

Cheri really has become quite the seamstress! It seems she learns how to make something every other week. Right now she wants to learn how to make some summer dresses for the girls.

During the last couple of months Cheri has also stepped up her exercising and is getting close to her pre-Keara weight. I have tried to help but sometimes we are just bad for each other. We have sweet teeth, not usually the same one which means double the desserts and one of us has to eat the whole thing.

In church she is the gospel doctrine teacher and recently has to share those duties with another so she teaches once every two weeks. She has made a lot of good friends in the ward, which is great since the furthest anyone lives from each other is 5-10 minutes.

This is a picture of Cheri (obviously) with her friend Jenn (her roommate while in New Zealand) who was in Phoenix in April. Cheri doesn't have a lot of pictures because she is always doing the taking. That and she is home by herself with the girls, so when I get home and they want to play with me, I get all the shots.

K - ra

KEARA ELAINE MOORE

If you have read previous posts you would know that Keara recentlyl celebrated her birthday. At 2 she is not terrible, but quite a handful. Recently, her vocabulary and understanding seem to have exploded. She uses all kinds of words and decently put together sentences. When she hears a new word, she'll repeat it and use it a few times in a phrase and then she just logs it away until she finds a use for it. She has also become a copy cat. It could be any random thing you do and she'll observe and then proceed to do the same.

She is still super tiny, at 22 lbs, but long and holding her we can feel she is going to be too heavy to hold all the time like we are used to. Her imagination has also blossomed, with the help of some new toys that encourage it. Her imagination has also spread from helping mommy around the house with different things. She got her sticker chart (she could spend hours playing with 5 stickers) and so therefore has become a great helper.

She loves oatmeal! And sometimes I wonder if she is a hobbit. She will eat cold cereal with me when she first wakes up and then when Cheri gets back from a walk an hour later, she'll have second breakfast and steal Cheri's oatmeal.

I showed her how to have a tea party with her new dish set and now she loves it! All her babies, and piu piu (subbing in for the missing baby with the single blonde locke of hair) always join her. And then afterwards she of course wants to wash and dry them.

One of the greatest things to watch is how she loves her baby sister!!! Her ears are great and so when we are all down stairs, she'll be the first one to hear Taryn waking up and insist we go get her. She has learned to speak for her quite well, informing us what Taryn wants and needs in a matter of fact tone. Though we still have to warn Keara about being gentle we know she can't wait for Taryn to grow up and play with her. Of course we don't think it'll be like Keara imagines it will be. She won't be able to just boss Taryn around telling her what to do. Taryn can be just as stubborn and will probably match Keara in size when that time comes.

T - ryn

TARYN NOELLE MOORE

Her 4 month anniversary having come and gone, she is beginning to develop more and more her own personality, and she lets us know it!

For those of you who haven't had a chance to get to know her. Taryn is quite the talker. At church people comment that she is getting bigger and louder. She likes to talk most when daddy has to hold her while mommy teaches sunday school. She loves smiling and talking face to face with people, though Cheri says she is becoming a mamma's girl. She's about 14 lbs and we know that's not a lot, but when you're used to Keara weighing in at 14 lbs around the year mark, it seems a lot to us. She eats a ton of rice cereal at night and has always taken her meal times very seriously.

She likes her sister well enough, even though Keara can scare her now and then. She also likes to be held upright, when she isn't she will arch her back until you move her. She rolls over from her tummy to her back and best of all...She's a THUMB sucker!!!

Okay, so that's not really a good thing. Pros and cons; she can find her own thumb and calm herself vs she won't take a binkey when she can't find her thumb.

Bring on the rice!

Check out my Slide Show!

Redemption

Keara turned 2 years old on the 28th of March. And Cheri was determined to have a better party (and more importantly a cake) than last year. Plus, it meant a lot more to Keara this year to have friends over.

Artwork courtesy of Sunny and Tauna.

She had about 10-12 friends come over for activities like painting, jewelry making, bean bag tossing, and tie-die shirting. We had a lot of help from Brent and Sunny's family keeping the kids attention at the various activities. Tauna and Chris delayed their leaving just long enough to be a part of it. And Grandma and Granpa Moore also got to be there.

But the important part to this party was to make up for last year's cake. Only a few of you have seen a picture of it, and thankfully fewer of you saw the actual cake...there is a reason for it. I had the genius idea to make a lego cake since that was one of her favorite toys at the time, but we did it last minute, like we do so many things, and didn't have a good frosting or enough. So, this year, with an idea from Chris and some help from Tauna and the internet Cheri put together this beautiful piece...

Inside there is a layer of ice cream and crushed oreos!

I don't know how much Keara fully understood but we do know she got the idea that it was a special day and that she was a reason for it.

Return of the Egg Races!

We had a full house for Easter this year. Brent, Sunny, and their family came over from Denver and Tauna, Chris, and Claire made the trip from LA. And seeing that there was an overwhelmingly Hicken influence present, we made sure to hold the annual After Easter Egg Races!

In front of the Mesa Temple

Had I known this was the case I would have designed an egg more suitable for winning the championship. Instead my orange egg fell apart have way through the race. I think Tauna had something to do with it, she was putting the pressure on me and was determined to win it (I have the battle scars to prove it). Instead while we were busy getting in each others way during the final heat, Brent sped away to victory.

Fortunately we were able to grab some footage of the action. As some f you fellow Demingites will note, it's almost as intense, though more exciting, than the Duck Races.