Rex is learning fast!!

So these pictures are of Rex sleeping. I love to see him sleeping in the morning. This morning he didn't wake up immediately when I went in to wake him, which he usually does, so I tried to take advantage and get a sleeping shot of him, but I also had to use my flash since the lights were still off and he's squinting, but he's still cute. He's such a great baby still sleeping through the night 7-10 hours on average. I am still nursing him only I'm pumping and feeding it to him through a bottle. I feel like a new woman now that I'm not being bit all the time!! He's doing great with a bottle, always has in fact! He will take it ice cold out of the fridge or luke warm and in any kind of bottle. He'll take it from me, from Nick, from anyone pretty much, and he'll even hold it himself if he needs to. Have I mentioned he's such a good baby!?!
This last week he has learned two new things, waving "hi" and pulling up on his knees to furniture. He loves to pull up on his knees now and will do it any chance he gets. He does it when you are sitting by him too. I caught this shot of him trying to "read" the children's scriptures.

And who can resist this sweet smile!?!? This picture really does show his personality, there is rarely anything that gets him really upset.

The other day we were at Cabella's and the girls were so proud of themselves for figuring out how to do these annoying pop guns. Cora was really cute trying to aim it, I tried to catch a picture of it, but my phone camera isn't as fast as my regular camera, which I didn't have out at the time. They were pretty proud to show their Daddy though when he was done playing with the real guns!

Here's more of Rex pulling up to his knees today. He figured out how to do it on the fireplace and it's like a whole new world up there for him! He could finally reach all the toys I tried to keep out of his reach...I guess I have to find a new "up high" place now! It was cute tonight our little tikes chairs were by his bumbo and he kept going back and forth between the chair and the bumbo, as long as he could be up on his knees was all he was concerned about. The new found freedom he has gained!! It only gets faster from here on how fast he moves! Let the real child-proofing begin!!

Silver Dollar City

So for some reason my blog won't let me put pictures in order and I've already typed a bunch of this post and don't want to re-type it. This is supposed to go by the pictures of Kayley and Addison. Anyway, this is the girls riding the train. We had to sit in the very back so that the train horn wasn't as loud. Most people race to get to the front, we all raced to get to the back. The girls loved it and Nick and Shannon loved being able to quote all the jokes since they are the same jokes they've been doing since they were kids. But I have to say, I saw them both chuckle at times to some of the jokes, so apparently they are old as dirt, but still funny! I chuckle a lot, but that doesn't mean much!!
So Silver Dollar City has been open for a few months now and the Bells have officially invaded the park!! We went a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! We got the condos and went down on Thursday night and spent the first night with Arlaine and us. The next morning Shannon and Addison joined us at Silver Dollar City. It was pretty hot, but a little breezy. However with it being Friday it wasn't that packed at all. The lines were pretty much non-existent so on every ride if the kids wanted to ride them a second time they just got to stay on and ride again, it was great! Rex got to join in on the fun this year and ride the frogs and the butterflies for the first time. He didn't seem to mind either way, but was a bit scared I think on the frogs during the jumping part. Every day we were at Silver Dollar City though he didn't nap but only 30 min the whole day as he is such a light sleeper, but he did great! He was very happy the whole time and he even slept through the night at the condos.

Cora turned a new leaf this year too as she is now able to ride the bigger kid rides with an adult. When asked which ride she wanted to ride first after riding the little baby rides she wanted to ride the swings. I was a bit anxious myself mainly because of the fear of my little child falling through, but she loved it and actually rode it two times in a row. She even helped nudge Kayley into riding it too for the first time. Kayley has always been pretty brave to ride rides except for the swings. But she rode them and loved them just as much as Cora. These are pictures of Cora's first time riding it with Nick. It was cute as you can see in the picture on the right that she is clinging to Nick for dear life. Even after riding it a number of times she would get in the seat and immediately put your hand/arm exactly where she wanted it. She also rode Fire in the Hole with me which is a tiny roller coaster, but it's all in the dark and the actual roller coaster part is very small, you are mainly just riding around looking at statues etc for the whole ride and the roller coaster part is at the end. She liked it until the end and and I've never had her hold on to me so tightly! It made me think of riding Space Mountain with my Mom when I was younger. It was dark and scary, but I remember holding onto my Mom so tight and having her tell me to hold on to her so tight. Overall she had a blast being able to ride so many more rides this year.

So, Addison was Kayley's little buddy the whole weekend! Kayley couldn't get enough of her and vice versa with Addison. We decided to stay for the show in the evening since Michelle and Kendall weren't going to get there until later in the day on Friday, Kayley was so good with Addison all day. Cora loves Addison too and keeps telling me that she is cuter than Rex. Cora calls her "Asdisdon" It's cute how much they love her and get so excited to see her!

Then Michelle and Kendall got there in the evening and we went to go ride the kiddie rides again. Once again it was great the lines weren't long making it easy for the kids to ride all the rides multiple times with their cousins. Garrett also got to ride the rides for the first time and of course was all smiles!

Then that night we all fit into the 2 bedroom condos. It was tight but do-able. Michelle and Kendall were in one room with Garrett, Nick and I in the other room with Rex and Addison, and Grandma and Shannon were on the pull-out couch with Kayley, Cora, Ashlyn, & Preston...well for a little bit. Ashlyn was actually the only big grandkid that stuck it out only because she was the first to fall asleep. It didn't take long for Preston to go into bed with his mom and dad and Kayley and Cora either. Then it stormed a bit that night (we didn't hear it over our fan apps on our phones, but everyone else did) and Ashlyn said she woke up to the storms, noticed she was the only one out there and still went right back to sleep instead of getting scared. I was impressed. But they just loved the fact that they all got to sleep under the same roof and had a blast when they all woke up!

Then the next day we got up and did it all over again at Silver Dollar City. The lines were a bit longer, but not that much longer for a Saturday. One time when were riding the kiddie rides, Kayley turns to me and says, "Mom, there's Cade!" (a boy in her CTR 5 class)...I thought she was joking and just saw someone that looked like Cade, but sure enough it was Cade! They were so excited to see each other and they rode the frogs, the ladybugs and the butterflies together.

The rest of the day we finally got to ride some adult rides and thanks to Shannon being pregnant Mooma got some help watching all the kiddos. We (I) was really glad that they were willing to watch them while us adults got to delve into our inner kid selves! We saved Wildfire for last just because of the timing and location of everything and hit it just in time because as soon as we got off I think they rode one more car of people and then shut it down for the night. I was very relieved as this is my favorite ride of all the rides! We had a great trip and can't wait to go again soon!

My Kids

So with being a mom you are very forgetful, no matter how many kids you have! So I wanted to write these two stories down before I forget as I know there are a lot of stories I'm sure I've forgotten. So the other day we were at Silver Dollar City (another post with pictures to come soon) and we were walking around, A LOT! Cora was walking a lot that day without sitting in the stroller and she turns to me and says, "Mom I know what walking is." me: "what" Cora: "exercising" me: "You're right Cora, you are so smart!" Cora: (She turns to me holding up her fist that has her CTR ring on and says: "Choose the Right!" She is in this phase where she loves her CTR ring and thinks that everything she does that is good is because she is wearing the ring. And of course a couple of days ago apparently she had hit one of her siblings (I was at mutual, so this is through Nick) and he was talking to her about why she hit her sibling. He reminded her about her wearing her CTR ring and choosing the right and how hitting her siblings was not choosing the right. She responds to Nick with: "Well, I wasn't wearing my ring then!" She is quite the cookie! And Kayley the other day says to me, "Mom I think it's going to be Spring soon." I asked her why she knew that and she says, "Well I just know there will be flowers out and baby birds hatching out of eggs soon." I replied with a "you are exactly right and so smart!" She is learning about spring and things that hatch out of eggs in school. They even had scrambled eggs for her snack the other day at school and I asked her if they were baby bird eggs they were eating, she looked at me like I was crazy! So, is it me, or are my kids just the smartest!?!? Rex is also learning how to sort of wave, clap, and of course loves to give kisses now on command even. They are open kisses, but sweet as can be!!

Lil Kickers

So, I grew up doing sports. I did soccer when I was little, didn't like it so much. Then I did T-ball/Softball...it was just ok. Then I started doing basketball and volleyball and loved both of them. These were the sports I stuck with throughout my junior high and high school years. Our family had a 2 sport rule otherwise I think I would have tried to do track as well as I like to run. So, I've never been one to like cheerleading/cheerleaders (no offense to those reading this entry that was/are cheerleaders...it's just not for me!) So, I REALLY don't want my girls to be one and I want them to develop a love of sports as I did. Lately Kayley has been talking about how fast she is at school. She is in a class with all boys and one girl. She has really started to talk about loving their recess time lately. I guess they play Mario Kart and race each other. Kayley tells me that the boys can't ever catch her because she's so much faster than her. She has also started getting her play balls out and showed me how she can kick them with her knee or kick them outside, etc. So, I thought maybe we should try to get her involved in soccer and see if she's interested in the sport (because as most of you know, Kayley has never seemed to be the sport type.) The other day Sports City had an open house for their Lil Kickers program. We decided to try and take Kayley and Cora and see how it went. They had it divided into three age groups 18 months-2 1/2, 3-6 years, and 7-8 year olds. I was glad they would be in the same group however the groups were only divided by a 6 in tall net so there wasn't much separation. Cora just ate it up! She loved being able to run around and kick the ball, etc. Kayley had a hard time with it. She came over to me and started complaining about hitting her hand or something on the ball. I tried to be sympathetic but still wanted her to toughen up a little and still play. That's hard for Kayley as she is definitely a drama queen and very sensitive. Well as I was consoling her, the 7-8 year olds were down at their end trying to score a point and the ball came and hit Kayley in the back. That just set it off completely! Trying to cover my laughs (I know I'm a horrible parent, but come on, what are the odds!?!?) I tried to be silly and took a ball and tried to get her excited about kicking her ball and what happened, I hit her in the head with the ball! Again tried to console her and cover my histerics at this point, it seemed impossible at this point. Luckily their time was over and we could head over to the bounce houses. Kayley continued to fuss about the littlest things so I'm just hoping this incidence was because maybe she was too tired or hungry or something like that. At any rate, how do you toughen up a kid!?! If she doesn't want to do sports, I can handle that, it may just not be her nature, but I don't want her to be a woose? Oh well, I will try to praise her for her character that she does have! She really does have a lot of great qualities and they may just not be the same talents as me and that's the beauty of having children! They share a little bit of you and your spouse, but there is lots more great characteristics about them that you get to learn about! Overall it was a fun experience and maybe she will want to do something else later!