Rex's Blessing Weekend and Cora's Birthday

This last weekend was quite the weekend. To start off, Grandpa and Grandma Marchelle came for the whole week ahead for an extended visit. They got to meet both Rex and Garrett for the first time. It was so fun to get them to finally meet them and get to hold them! It was cute seeing Randy get emotional with Rex thinking of his Dad, who Rex is named after. I also had an epiphany on Rex's name that we did not even plan when we named him. Nick's first name (Nicholas) is after his great-grandpa and his middle name, Randall is after his Dad. Rex's first name is after his great-grandpa and his middle name, Nicholas is after his Dad, if that makes sense? We didn't even plan on it, but we might have set a tradition with naming Rex. I was pretty excited! Here's pictures of when Randy and Marchelle got to meet Rex and of them at the mall riding the carousel for Cora's birthday.
The weekend was jam packed with activities. Here are a few fun pics of the cousins playing together and just being silly.

And since all of the Bell family was together, Michelle thought it was a good idea to get a big group family picture taken now that there are two new babies added to the family since our last big picture and as far as we knew (at least when we were planning the weekend) no one else was expecting. Little did we know that the cute couple found in this group of picture was expecting their first...due Feb 8th! We are excited and now have to plan for another family picture!!

Then another reason for the get together was Cora turned 3!!! I can't believe she is already this old! We just love our little Cora, and I do mean little! I always thought Kayley was little, but Cora is a bit smaller than she was and just as cute. She is always so happy, no matter what time of the day! She absolutely LOVES babies and especially her little brother. She is very inquisitive and loves to try and write her name already, even though she doesn't know how to yet...or should I say I haven't worked on it with her yet, but I bet if we worked on it, it wouldn't be long till she got it. She's more adventurous than her sister, but is still timid on some things. She is always very loving and loves to give loves to you and cuddle. We just love our Cora and can't imagine our family without her.

Here are pictures of her birthday party. She requested a Nemo party this year and at the pool. As I mentioned, the weekend was busy. So after pictures in Liberty we headed home to prep for the party to be held at our neighborhood pool. I happened to check my email while nursing Rex and found an email saying our pool was closed due to someone "defacating" in the pool. I immediately freaked out, but called Michelle to see if we could move the party to their pool. Luckily everything worked out, but it was a bit stressful having to pack it all up to go to Liberty versus having it by our house...plus of all times Nick was on call and usually he isn't as busy, but of all Saturday's he got called in 4 times....3 of which were right by the time for her party! It was crazy, but luckily the party just consisted of family so they were all flexible and VERY helpful!! Here's her cake, which didn't last very well in the heat...I'm not a professional cake decorator but it still tasted good!

We did LOTS of swimming, which is great to entertain kids!! They all were great water babies!!

We played pin the lucky fin on Nemo...the kids had fun doing that!

Then there were lots of presents to open...Cora loved opening them. She was very patient in waiting to open them. She kept telling everyone..."It's almost time to open my presents guys!" It was cute!

Then the main reason for eveyone's gathering was Rex's blessing and he got to share the blessing weekend with his cousin Garrett to make travels easier for everyone! He also was blessed on Cora's birthday, which is cool because Cora was actually blessed on my Mom's birthday. A great way to remember big events!! Here are some pics of him in his blessing outfit.

Here are pics with Garrett and the girls, who like always couldn't get enough of him!

Here's a pic of all of us on the special day!

A pic of all the Felker's that were in attendance. We really appreciate everyone that made the trip...it really meant a lot to us! It was a great weekend!!

And here are the two most important men in my life!!! Aren't they cute!?!?!