December 2007 Events

Well, December was quite the busy month...I think we were gone almost every weekend!! To start, Quentin came home from his mission the first weekend. We all met in Springfield at the airport. It was a sweet time to see him home and see Arlaine and Randy be so excited to have him home. He got to meet quite a few new people he had not ever met in person. This family was busy while he was on his mission. He met Ashlyn, Marchelle, Cora, and John all in one day! Kayley was the only niece born before he left and she was only 3 months left, so I guess he also got to meet who she was now for the first time as well!
The following week we headed to St. Louis for John and Shannon's wedding at the Temple. It was FREEZING! Middle of December and yes, it had to start snowing. It made for great pictures for Shannon and John, but boy was it cold! I was just glad that we could bundle up with coats! Then after the wedding it was off to Columbia for their reception that night. Funny story with it all, Grandma Weekes ended up burning something in the oven right before the reception and the whole building stunk! We had to make a mad dash to Walmart for some air freshener to help the smell a bit, but it still stunk! She felt really bad! But in her defense it was a crazy day and we had lots of food warming up, etc in preparation. It ended up being a great time and for the most part, admist all the snow/weather, there were quite a few people who ended up showing up!

Admist all of this traveling, my girls continued to grow and reach huge milestones. Cora is now 4 months and has learned how to roll over! Kayley still loves to play with her on the floor as well and I have to say it's really cute! Kayley reached a huge milestone and was amazing at it as well! She was potty-trained this month! In 1 1/2 weeks too at that...even with all our traveling! She is one smart cookie! The weekend of Thanksgiving, the Carles were getting ready to leave and Edward got out the new Elmo potty (it was brand new) and started playing with it, Kayley told him that wasn't what he was supposed to do with it and proceeded to go into the bathroom, take off her footie PJ's and went potty in the toilet all by herself! I decided that we would go for it and put big girl undies on her, even while everyone thought I was crazy for doing it with the holidays and all the traveling we had planned! But she had everything down almost immediately and amongst all the traveling each weekend only had a few accidents, I think only at most 2 each weekend we were gone...pretty impressive if you ask me! We are so proud of her! She was pretty proud of herself too!

Then we had a great Christmas. We went to Michelle's for Christmas Eve as most of the Bell family came up for the celebration. We got some cute pictures of all the Bell cousins and of the girls.

Then for Christmas Day we went to the Walker's again to do some Christmas presents. I actually forgot to take any still pictures of the girls for Christmas morning, but we had a great Christmas at home before we headed to Michelle's house. Cora got her bouncy seat, which she loves and Kayley got some new Ariel stuff, which she loves! Then we had a great visit with everyone at the Walker's.

Then a few days later we headed to my Mom's house in Jeff City. The Reall's got to come as well as almost everyone else. The only one's we didn't get to see were the Sanders, they were greatly missed, but it was fun with everyone else there! It was fun to get most of the babies born in 2007 together for some pictures. It still amazes me that all of my siblings that could be pregnant that year were and all of us had girls!

November 2007 Events

For the sake of journaling for my family's history, I will be doing posts for each month of the year with all the events we did that month. Here is Novembers' events:


At the beginning we went to Silver Dollar City. Again I had a blast riding the adult rides as I had to sit out on all of them while I was pregnant with Cora. Cora is not big enough to ride the little kid rides yet being only, but Kayley had a blast and we had a blast riding with her. Her favorite was the frogs...they really jump quite high for a kid's ride! Kayley and Ashlyn of course also had tons of fun playing at Grandma's house in her wagon outside.

My girls continue to grow...FAST...as most kids do! Cora is now 3 months old and Kayley is 2 years old and 3 months...err whatever you want to call that age!! :) Cora is pretty much sitting up almost all by herself with small assistance from the couch and the bumbo. Kayley loves to sit with her. She also likes to remind us that she is still our baby by dressing herself in Cora's clothes (bottom left). We've also been working on rebuilding a car for Quentin as he will be returning from his mission in December. Here's Kayley enjoying the view from the doorless passenger side of his new Honda Civic!

Also in November we got a surprise visit from some cousins. Nick's Aunt Wilma came from Ohio and brought Roreigh (Jake's daughter) who is only one week younger than Kayley. Nick's other Aunt Nomi from Kansas came with Nickolette who loves to play with Kayley and Ashlyn and now Cora and of course Roreigh during the visit. She is really great with all the girls! And of course the little girls adore Nickolette!! We all went to Legends to eat/shop, etc. Cabella's is located there where Nomi and Wilma love to get fudge and Nebraska Furniture Mart is also there where we got a new couch for a great deal! We all ate at Famous Dave's for dinner and had a blast! It sure is great to have cousins and extended cousins!

November also was Cora's first Thanksgiving! JT was currently living with us while Jess was back in Pittsburgh trying to get their house sold, so the Carles came to our house for the holidays to spend Thanksgiving. Andrew and Sarah came over from Columbia as well as Tyson and Mary. I believe Mary and Tyson were getting close to engagement, but can't remember for sure. It was the first time he had met any of the Carles as we knew him from living in Columbia earlier. It was a fun day as we (Jess and I...but mainly Jess) did the Turkey. It was my first Turkey and I think it turned out pretty good. Then we had the usuals of a Felker Thanksgiving...which always has the famous Cheese Grits...yum!! It was fun to have all the cousins together to play with one another!

I promised Nick this year that I wouldn't put up the Christmas tree until after Thanksgiving, although I desperately wanted it up for everyone to see it up during Thanksgiving (not that it's much to look at only being 7 ft high)...but it's also our first thanksgiving in this house so I was excited to have a house to decorate for the holidays! So Kayley was my big helper and loved every minute of it. I had to make sure that the non-breakable ornaments were at reaching level for her and the breakable ones were up high as they were very intriguing for her, but she was a great help and it turned out great! Cora just sat and watched with amazement while we decorated and next year she will probably enjoy it more!

Halloween 2007

Cora had her first Halloween this year. We had fun a couple of nights before Halloween carving pumpkins. Kayley did NOT like to get her hands dirty, so good thing Daddy was there to help her! Cora just sat by watching and enjoying the entertainment.
Here are the girls dressed up. We went to Liberty to go trick or treating with Ashlyn. Cora was our bunny and Kayley was our cow and Ashlyn was a bear. We had quite the animal collection going! We had lots of fun watching our cute girls trick or treating. I felt crazy holding a bag for Cora as I knew most people probably thought, "this baby can't eat any of this candy yet!" Oh well, we all got to enjoy it anyway!! :) It was a fun halloween!

Audrey's 2nd Birthday Party

Audrey had her 2nd birthday in October. We went over to Columbia to celebrate with her. We had fun on Friday night going to a pumpkin patch with the Felkers. The drive was a bit more than we expected so when we got there our time was limited, but we ended up having a lot of fun. I actually forgot to take any pictures of Cora even though it was her first pumpkin patch experience...must be 2nd child syndrome that Mommy has!! :) But, Kayley and Audrey had fun playing in the playhouse and seeing all the different looking pumpkins.

Saturday evening Tyson and Mary came over to have fun and help decorate cookies for Audrey's birthday party.

Sunday was Audrey's birthday so we all went to church and Kayley went to nursery with Audrey without crying for the first time!! I think it did the trick as she loves going to nursery now!! But afterwards, Mom and Otto and Mary and Tyson came over along with a few other friends of Andrew and Sarah and we had fun eating cake and ice cream and celebrating Audrey's birthday. Mom gave the girls their birthday presents since Kayley's was only about 2 months beforehand. They got matching fuzzy purses, fuzzy ear-muffs (displayed) and lots of necklaces and other girlie things! Thanks Grandma Jani and Papa Otto! It was a fun weekend with family!

Kayley & Cora Best Friends

Kayley loves having a baby sister. She is really a big help. She loves to bring me wipes and diapers and is also very willing to put away the dirty diaper in the diaper pail for us. Cora just loves watching her sister play. She is mastering a pretty cute smile now as she is now a little over 2 months old. She really is a happy baby and is already starting to sleep through the night for me. She's usually asleep in between 9 and 10 and then she'll stay asleep until about 6am and then I'll nurse her and she'll go back to sleep for a few more hours. I couldn't ask for a more perfect baby...plus she's just so darn cute!! We really are blessed to have such cute and fun girls!

Cora's Blessing Weekend

This weekend we were able to have Cora's blessing weekend. It was so much fun having family around and spending time with one another to celebrate this special event in our life and Cora's life. The first night everyone was together we all got together and had dinner at O'Charley's for dinner since they have free kids meals...with all the kids on my side of the family...this really pays off!
Then Sunday was Cora's blessing. It was extra special as it also happened to fall on my Mom's birthday...September 30th. So we also had a little birthday celebration with her as well. We all had tons of fun with all the kids playing together and eating pizza and eating cake and enjoying each other's company. Cora was great for her blessing and there were lots of people in her circle. Included in the circle were Nick (who gave her the blessing), Otto Hildebrand, Randy Bell, Jud Carle, Edward Felker, Andrew Felker, and Kendall Walker. We were so greatful for those that were able to come and celebrate this special day with us!

Cora's Blessing and as mentioned before, Nick was the one to give her the blessing: Parts of it are a bit choppy as the recorder was a bit fuzzy for part of the recording, so I've added what your Dad said to those fishy parts.

"Our dear Father in Heaven, by the authority of the Melchezidek Priesthood, we come before Thee at this time to give this child a name that shall be had upon the records of the church. The name which we give her is Cora Anne Bell. Cora at this time your Heavenly Father wants you to know that the sweet spirit you are and how much He loves you and appreciates you. He wants you to know how much joy you bring into your family's life....at this time He gives you a blessing that you will be able to be a strength throughout your life...that you will be able to be looked upon for guidance...so that you will be able to help those in need...that you have a special gift...we bless you with these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Nick said "you were blessed with a spirit to recognize the needs of others and that this was a gift you would use this to serve others and reach out to them throughout your life."

Cora Anne 1 1/2 months

Cora likes her swing...although she sometimes gets a bit top-heavy and slides to one side or the other. The blanket sometimes helps, but it didn't this time as she kept sliding over. But, she was still happy...so I snapped a shot!

Summer Hats

Sporting our new summer hats for this upcoming summer. Kayley loved wearing these new hats about every day for about a week. So, I took a picture of them. Although this picture shows the hat actually on Cora's head when in reality, half the time when she put Cora's hat on her it would be on her face.

Children's Mercy

At the beginning of September, we had to unfortunately take Cora back to the hospital for a urinary tract infection. We were there for 3 days, almost 4 trying to get her fever under control. It was scary, but amongst it all, Cora was still fairly happy throughout the entire visit. I had to get a picture of her splint for her IV, it was sad to see them put it in, but she survived and then after that it was kind of cute to see it on her. Luckily she just had the urinary tract infection, but they still had to do all the tests on her because of her age. They all thought she would have meningitis...luckily that came out negative and it was just a matter of controlling her fever. It was scary as I had to stay by myself, I know I'm a chicken! The first night Nick and Kayley actually stayed. Kayley was so good and just curled up on the extra chair in the corner of the room. The nurses actually didn't even know she was there until in the morning. But the next night they both had to go home. Cora was quite the trooper. She nursed great amongst all the IV chords and I got to enjoy some yummy food since I was nursing. My favorite thing was their oreo milk shake...it was to die for! We finally got to go home and have our sweet, healthy Cora back though!

Caught in the Act

"Caught in the Act"...I had to get a picture of her cute sleeping position. She's already looking and acting like a girl. Also, until we lost this one, Kayley always insisted on Cora sleeping with her (Kayley's) baby. "Baby" is a prized item in our house as Kayley can't sleep without her or without a binky. It was very grown up of her to share one of her babies with Cora. We now only have one baby left as the other have gotten lost, so she no longer shares her as much. I guess Cora isn't that special yet! :)

Purple Girls

I decided to dress all of us in purple this day. Kayley kept going around talking about her "back pants like Mommy" almost all day. It was fun, so Nick had to take a picture of his girls in purple.

Maggie Moos

Here is proof of how much our family LOVES Maggie Moos...even at such a young age! We went tonight and Nick let Kayley pick out her own flavor. She of course picked out the blue kind, which ironically ended up being one of Nick's flavors...wonder how that happened!!??!? But it was Blue Cotton Candy and boy was it BLUE!! Kayley got it all over herself and then had to of course love on Cora so Cora got some through osmosis I guess. I didn't have my camera with me, so we looked like horrible parents taking them out of there without washing off their faces so I could have them pose at home with the camera. Needless to say, I don't go anywhere now without my camera!

Cora 6 weeks

Here's our big girl Cora. In this picture, she is one month and 1 week old. She sure is cute and is learning to smile. One of my favorite things to do is wake up to her smiling. As soon as she starts waking up, I lean over her crib and she just smiles really big. The other morning, she was eating and her Daddy gave her a kiss good-bye before work and she stopped eating and just looked at me and smiled as if to say, "That's my Daddy!" It sure was cute! We are enjoying having a new baby in the home.

When You Turn Your Head...

Kayley is really growing up and with that she is learning the art of being a girl. One of her new favorite things to do is to get ready in the morning with Mommy. This includes her putting on her own make-up (as demonstrated here.) Oftentimes when I'm not looking a new mess occurs with some new make-up on the floor. I'm just glad it hasn't ventured on the walls or the carpet.

Table Rock Lake

We went to Table Rock Lake over Labor Day Weekend with the Walkers and Grandma Bell. It was fun as we got the condos and took our jetski. Kayley and Ashlyn didn't get on the jetski, so this tube was their "boat". But we got to go swimming with them and relax in the condos. Thanks to Grandma watching the kiddos, the Mommy's and Daddy's got to have fun on the jetski! We also learned that this "boat" tube is best to be used as a kids boat than as a boat for the adults to have pulled behind the jetski...it was quite hilarious watching everyone attempt to get on it and stay on it! Also, it was Cora's very first time at the lake and even though she doesn't remember it and wasn't old enough to get out in the sun, she was still a great trooper! It was a fun relaxing weekend!

Silver Dollar City

This year we all got Silver Dollar City Season Passes thanks to Arlaine's generous Christmas gift. We've had a blast using them, but I've missed out on some of the rides being pregnant with Cora. Well, now she's here and I've been able to go and ride the rides!! I was way excited, but VERY nervous. Anytime I ride rides I always think I'm going to be in that one seat that malfunctions...so I make sure that Arlaine or whoever is watching our kids knows who gets the kids when something happens to us...crazy I know!! You'd think if I was that worried I'd make sure that Nick and I rode at separate times, but I'm also too chicken to ride them without Nick. Oh well! So, we had lots of fun and Ashlyn and Kayley had fun riding the kiddie rides. We also got to go look at Gma and Gpa Bell's land that has been recently sold. This was the new sign put at the entrance to their house.

Kayley's 2nd Birthday

Here is our big two year old!! She had her very own birthday cake and was very good at blowing out her candles. She didn't get as messy as she did for her first birthday. Now she likes to be a bit cleaner when she eats. In fact, she normally asks for a napkin now during dinner. Some of her favorite toys were her new bike and her Elmo Doctor kit. We had fun with the Walkers for her birthday. It was nice having a small celebration especially with just having Cora.

Portraits

Here are the girls portraits. Kayley's 3 year portrait and Cora at 2 weeks. I wanted to get a professional picture of Cora before she got too big. Kayley loved taking a picture with her. They both did great for all the pictures!!

More Pictures of Cora

Here are some other pictures of Cora at the hospital and on her way home. She got lots of cuddle time with Daddy at the hospital and cuddle time with Mommy at home. Grandma was really excited to see her newest grandbaby!

Here's a picture of her getting her first bath at home (top left). Pictures of her at home with her big sister Kayley holding her. Kayley also was loving enough to share her baby with Cora...one of Kayley's most prized possessions!!

Buddies: Kayley & Ashlyn

Kayley and her cousin Ashlyn are definitely buddies! One of Kayley's favorite things to do is to call Ashlyn on the phone, both for pretend and for real. Here are a bunch of pictures of them together. The bottom two were when Kayley got to stay at Michelle's house while we had Cora at the hospital. Michelle was so sweet to watch her for those two days so we could enjoy that time together welcoming Cora into the world. But, Kayley and Ashlyn do really get along well and love to play with one another. Kayley will be really glad when Cora is old enough for her to play with Kayley.

Sweet Baby Kathryn McKay Sanders

The day after Cora was born, we sadly received the news that our niece Kathryn had passed away. On the 1st of August Jan had taken her to the hospital as she felt she was dehydrated. She had been sick along with the rest of the family. She ended up having a urinary tract infection and did have dehydration. I don't know all the details, but she ended up being life-flighted to a bigger hospital in Pensacola and after many efforts she ended up passing. After her death they found out that she had actually had Cardio Myopathy, something that no one was aware of nor is there any history in our family nor in the Sanders' family. It was very unexpected especially as she was only 5 1/2 months old. She will be greatly missed, but thanks to the knowledge of eternal families and John and Jan's desire to be with her again and their family's righteousness, they will be able to be with one another again someday. Until then, I'm sure Dad is having a hayday being able to be with her and is loving every minute of it as he did not get to live long while he was a Grandpa here on Earth before he passed. Here are some pictures of her during her life.

The Bell Family

This is our family. Nick and I have been married for 4 years now and have two beautiful girls. Kayley is 2 and Cora who was just born. Time sure does fly. It seems like yesterday we were celebrating Kayley's birth. Now she is two and growing like a weed. Nick is outnumbered in our family with three girls around him, but I don't think he'd have it any other way.

Here is a picture of us the day Cora was born. What an exciting event for our family!

Cora Anne Bell

Well, Cora has officially joined our family! We were induced by my own choosing. She was due July 31st and my appointment was on that day and the doctor asked if I wanted to be induced. Well, having had Kayley 4 weeks early, I was pretty emotional and ready to have Cora after 36 weeks...so I of course said YES, Induce me!! :) So we went in at 6:30 am and the doctor came and broke my water to get contractions started. By 11, they hadn't progressed as they should so they started my epidural as well as some pytocin. After about 3 hours I felt a huge pressure down low and the nurse came in for her regular check to see how dilated I was and she was like, "Don't move, I've got to get the doctor!" Apparently that pressure was Cora showing herself and telling us it's ready to push! So after the doctor got there it was about 4 pushes and she was out! She weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz. and 19 in long. She was a crier to begin with but quickly calmed down after I held her. Everything else was pretty laid back and easy going with her!

Here are some pictures of when she was first born...
Here's when Kayley came to meet her. Michelle was nice enough to keep Kayley while we were at the hospital, so she brought Kayley and Ashlyn to come meet Cora. Kayley immediately loved Cora and wanted to hold and kiss her often!

Here's our first family picture after Cora was born. Pretty good looking family!!

Here's my favorite picture of Cora the day she was born. She just looks so peaceful and so perfect!

July 2007 Events

July was kind of a busy month too...especially as we anxiously awaited Cora's arrival. With Kayley being 4 weeks early, it was hard for me to go those last 4 weeks in my pregnancy. For the 4th of July we went to Liberty to the town's firework's show. Kayley and Ashlyn had a blast together and the fireworks weren't all that scary to them as long as we had Kayley's binky and baby with us! John also made his first debut with the family for the holiday. He stayed at our house and seemed to fit in rather nicely with the family.
Ashlyn also turned 1 in July. I don't know what I was thinking being ok in a swimming suit at 7 1/2 months, but we wanted to celebrate such a special day with Ashlyn. It was a fun swimming party with cupcakes and popsicles...perfect to be eaten outside at the pool...no clean up...just rinse off in the pool!! Then the following Saturday we went to Ashlyn's house for her birthday party. She had a yummy cake made by Kendall's partner at work's wife. Ashlyn also got a rollercoaster toy from some of Kendall's friend's kids. It was the highlight of the party as you can tell Kayley loved it!

Kayley is also getting ready for her baby sister to come. She loves cheese sticks and I love that she loves them too since they are easy and healthy! I'll just give her one while I'm showering for the day and she just sits in the bathroom waiting for me to get ready while enjoying her cheese stick! She's also into this cheesy smile stage...it's hard to get her to smile a normal smile. I was able to get these two normal smiles, but with a lot of cheesy takes in between. Either way, she's still cute!

June 2007 Events

June was kind of a crazy month as it was the month Cassie and Kyle got married. They got married on June 15th in the St. Louis Temple. It was hot!! But maybe that was because Cassie chose black as one of her colors and that I was 7 months pregnant!! Then a week later they had one of their other receptions at the Lake...it was much cooler in the gym at church! Here are some more pictures of Kayley. She is now a couple months shy of turning 2. We can't believe our girl is getting so big! Here are some pictures of her playing with her buddy, Ashlyn. She is crawling with Ashlyn, but don't worry she didn't forget how to walk. There are also two pictures of her with chocolate running down her face, she does love her chocolate that's for sure!

May 2007 Events

May was a really busy month for us. To start it off, we found out that we are having another girl!! See ultrasound pictures below. Everything looked healthy and good other than that!
Nick GRADUATED!!! WAHOO!! We have been waiting for this moment for a long time! Ok...not as long as some people, but it's seemed long enough! We now get to go work like normal people at his new job in Independence at the new hospital, Centerpoint. We are really blessed to have this job and that it's in Missouri and close to family. We are way excited!

Another big thing is we moved and bought our first house! It's a great house in Grain Valley. We love the area and it's only about 8 minutes from Nick's work...he really did not want to commute living in Kansas City area.

We took a trip to Silver Dollar City with Grandpa. It was fun and great weather!

We had a Felker Family Reunion...thanks to Mary graduating!! It was the first time we had all been together in a long time so it was great to see everyone and visit...which we did a lot of!! We visited at the pool...

We visited at Mary's Graduation party in Jeff City...it was yummy food and great dancing...which what us Felker's like to do at parties!!

Then we visited more at Caroline and Judson's baptism that Sunday. It was such a special baptism having all the family there! I was privileged enough to be asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and was so grateful for that as it reminded me of the great step Caroline and Judson were taking in their life. They are such great kids!

Then we continued to visit at a picnic the last day before everyone had to go home. It was great weather and yummy food. Also Aunt Kathy and Chelsea surprised Mary by coming so it was great to catch up with them too! Here's some great pictures of all the cousins...

And all the siblings and their families...Have I mentioned that I love my family!