Visit with the Rodmans

I forgot to post this earlier. About a week ago, Nick's cousins, the Rodmans came for a quick visit on their way through to Colorado. We were lucky enough for them to stay and visit long enough to spend the night and the girls loved every minute of it. Roreigh their granddaughter/niece came with them and she is exactly one week younger than Kayley. The girls were in 7th heaven having her here! We went to TGIFriday's and Nick found a fabulous coupon to where we all ate (all 9 of us, 3 kids and 6 adults) for 38 bucks!! I was way impressed as always with Nick's deals as were the Rodmans! Then afterwards we came home and the girls got to take a big bubble bath in our jacuzzi tub and had a blast. Then of course Aunt Wilma always comes bearing gifts from her good deals she finds and it was present time. The girls were way excited as they got lots of girlie things and cool books and lots of other stuff. We had a great, but short visit with them!

Very Happy Parents

Well, Nick and I have great reason to be very proud parents this week. Cora has pretty much been potty-trained this week. For journaling purposes, on Saturday, July 18th, we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and Cora kept telling us she needed to go potty...well lately she has gone potty and squeezed her cheeks so hard that a little spec of poop has come out...it was pretty cute, but we tried to make a big deal of it. On the way out of the store, she kept insisting that she go potty, so reluctantly I took her as I was fully expecting her to do the same as above. Well to my surprise, she went the full round in going potty. I was so excited and we made a huge deal about it. I honestly didn't think I was ready to try potty training, especially on the weekend with errands on Sat and church/nursery on Sunday cause we're just barely getting her to go to nursery without fussing! So Monday, July 20th we went full force into wearing underwears...her special elmo underwears that she picked out about 3 months ago. She took to #1 very quickly and only had 3 total accidents that day, one being #2...not so fun as we all know! :) Then the next day only 2 accidents, one also being #2, Wednesday a repeat of Tuesday. At this point I'm tired of cleaning ickies out of her underwears. Both of our kids are pretty regular so I kept trying to catch her in the act, but something would always be in the way (cleaning dinner or the next night they were just playing so nicely together I didn't want to disturb that) so I thought that suckers may do the trick or at least it was worth a shot. So on Thursday, July 23rd I showed her how I could go #2 (as a mother I'm already used to having my kids in the bathroom with me!) and then I got myself a sucker for going poopie in the potty...GO MOM!! :) Then it was cute b/c Kayley immediately then sat on the toilet and tried to push on her belly to go poop to get a sucker. She even would run around the house to try and work some poop out. Then later that evening it happened...Cora pooped in the potty!! I about cried!! Cora of course was ecstatic since she was now able to get a sucker!

So, I think she broke Kayley's record in potty training in 4 days as Kayley was 1 1/2 weeks. We have yet to go poopy again in the potty, but it's only been one day, so I'm hoping that this a trend and we are almost officially free of diapers. We still do bed time and nap time with diapers just to be safe, but I think as of next week we will be ready to drop those too as she's been waking up dry the last few days! We are really proud of our Cora and the accomplishment she has made. She is also very proud of herself as she still claps when she goes potty. Then we all say "Yeah Cora!" She then replies with a "Yeah Me!" It sure is cute to see her so proud of herself! If we knew all our kids were going to be this easy in potty training, we'd have bunches of kids!! :)

A Bunch of Cow Bells

Well, yesterday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-fil-a. All you had to do was attempt to dress up like a cow and you would get a free meal. So, a few black construction paper circles later and we were set...and yes I even got Nick to dress up and had to sneak in a picture while he was getting Kayley out as he wouldn't pose for me before we left. Well, we were glad we went! We got there and they said we could pick whatever we wanted between meals 1-7 and if the girls wanted a kids meal they could have that or get a regular meal. So what did we do?...jumped on getting the girls real meals! They both got a chicken nugget meal with a pop and they were so excited to have their pop! It was a fun day and it was fun to see the other people dressed as cows too. So, no we weren't the only ones! Oh...and I was pretty impressed with myself on our title...now I have a new Halloween costume idea! :) We are the Bells you know!! :)

Kayley playing the big Sis role

I caught Kayley reading to Cora in her bed a few days ago. Cora likes to play "sleep" in Kayley's bed like a big girl as she is still in her crib...I know, I know she's almost 2, but I'm not ready for 2 kids running freely in and out of their bed just yet! Maybe soon we'll make her bed a big girl bed, but just not yet! Anyway, this was really cute and I was also way excited that I found out how to video from my camera and figured out how to put it on the blog! :)

4th of July, etc

Well, you guessed it on what this blog is about if you stay connected to anyone on the Bell side! I put some pics up on facebook a long time ago, but just realized I didn't put any up on our blog. So, we too went to Arkansas/Branson/Springfield for 4th of July weekend. We started by going to Springfield and spending time at Mooma's house, then to SDC on Friday with everyone, which is always fun! We did get Natalie to ride a ride, the American Plunge, although it's not the one we wanted her to ride, it's a start Natalie!! :) Kayley did NOT like that ride as it got her wet. She will ride almost all the other rides, even some that I'm a bit nervous to ride myself, but she was not happy about this one getting her wet! Then on Sat we headed to Arkansas to see Addison. The girls and I had been able to see her a couple weeks before, but Nick hadn't, so this was his first time seeing her. I warned him that she would try and make him a bit baby hungry...he admitted it did a bit, but both of us do NOT have any announcements! :) We're enjoying everyone else having babies! Then, we all played at Chik-fil-a....even the adults took their turns down the slide with the kiddos...including Grandma! Then we went to the BBQ at John's sister's house where there was yummy food and lots of fun time visiting with family. We had a great fireworks show, or so I heard...I was mostly in and out with Nick trying to calm our girls down so we got to take turns here and there. Then Saturday night we actually got to stay in a suite in our hotel, which was really nice! Then Sunday morning was the blessing, which went well and afterward we all went to Shannon's house for lunch. It was great to catch up with family that we hadn't seen in a long time! That always makes for a great celebration!