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!

April 2007 Events

April was a fun month for us. We got a special treat with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Sargent. It was short and sweet, but we always love to get to see them! We met them at their hotel with Sarah and Audrey. They loved to be able to see Kayley and Audrey again.

Easter was also in April. We went over to Andrew and Sarah's apartment for Easter dinner. Kayley and Audrey had a great time playing together and of course loved the bread Aunt Sarah made. Shannon also loved being able to spoil her niece by hiding presents from the Easter Bunny at her house. Then the top left picture is one of Kayley eating strawberries, which she can't get enough of! We're just glad that it's almost summer and they will be available more often!

March 2007 Events

As this being one of my big projects on putting all our pictures/info that I can remember on our blog so I can print it and make a journal...I'm reminded about how quickly time flies!! Here I am only in 2007 and so much has changed since then!! So, here are pictures of our sweet, cute Kayley who is quite the ham! Our Sunday routine usually consists of going over to Aunt Shannon's house for dinner and then hanging out and letting Shannon and Kayley play and enjoying one another's company. Well, we often stay late into the night and so I usually try and remember to bring Kayley's PJ's and then we just get her ready for bed and sometimes she just falls right to sleep in the car and we transfer her to her bed. Well, I remembered her PJ's this Sunday, but since she had Sunday clothes on beforehand, I forgot socks and it was warmer during the day and I forgot her jacket. So, she had to wear Daddy's coat out to the car and she did look cute and looked awful warm even though her hair was a mess! Then the other two pictures are just ones of her being cute in the kitchen. She's teasing with me and giving me her cheesy grin and then she's also wanting the camera and wanting to look at the picture on the back. It amazes how young the kids learn how digital cameras work!
Also in March Kayley got to spend lots of time with two of her bestest buddies...Audrey and Ashlyn. We went up to Liberty for a visit, I'm not sure what we were up there for this time, but I'm assuming it was either for a job interview or house-hunting or something of that sort as we've been making lots of trips that way with Nick graduating soon. All these pictures of her and Ashlyn together were probably taken in a couple of different weekends. But Nick and I took the two of them to the park in their neighborhood to slide on the slide and swing in the swings and we went out to eat with them at Red Robin and then Kayley even loves Ashlyn so much that she is constantly wanting to hold her or change her diaper or just love on her!

Kayley and Audrey are good buddies cause we both live in Columbia together and are able to get together often. Kayley and Audrey are only 2 months apart in age, so they get along real well, unless it comes to sharing, which is hard to do at any age, but definitely as a kid! Here Kayley and Audrey are playing on a nice warm day in March at the park. We met them there for a picnic lunch and the girls loved playing on the playground equipment the best!

At the end of March we (all the Bells at the time) went to Silver Dollar City to use our passes for the opening of the season. It was a bit colder than we had anticipated, but it was worth the trip! We went to Silver Dollar City and I only got to ride the kiddie rides, but was glad that Kayley was old enough for them so I could get some rides in! But we also all splurged and got tickets for the Branson Belle. Nick and I had already been a year earlier and loved it! So we all took advantage of the discount you get with SDC season passes and went for the lunch trip. It was definitely a bit more windy up there as you can see with Kayley wearing one of Aunt Cassie's jackets and Ashlyn being bundled up in blankets the whole time! Then we all actually still fit into the condos!! We drew straws and Nick and I got the pull-out bed...not sure why they didn't have more sympathy for the only pregnant woman, but oh well! It was fun though!

February 2007 Events

February wasn't very busy for us as most February's don't seem to be for us anyway. We have our typical Valentine's Day, but I neglected to take any pictures. I believe if I remember correctly though that we had Kayley stay the night at Aunt Shannon's house and I made our apartment try to look like a hotel. It was nice to have a night to ourselves, but I couldn't stop asking Nick about what he thought Kayley was doing at the time. I was also planning on making Nick breakfast and everything the next morning, but couldn't wait that long to see my Kayley so we went and ate breakfast with Shannon and Kayley instead! But here are the rest of our pictures from February. One day (upper left) Kayley decided to take off all her clothes and wear one of my undershirts. It was pretty cute to see her play dress up like this, but she got really embarassed when I tried to take a picture. Here is also another picture of Kayley and Audrey together. I believe we were watching Audrey for Sarah since she had a doctor's appointment or something like that. They are eating snacks together and insisted on eating them on the kitchen floor. Then another day this month I put Kayley in the cutest collared shirt I had found at a garage sale. I bought it cause it was almost exactly like a shirt I had, which I'm also wearing in the picture. Well, Nick's scrubs he has to wear for Clinicals also happen to be green, so I made him take a picture with us when he got home from work...he thought I was nuts, but oh well! And then I did a cute photo shoot with Kayley during the day in her cute shirt, but as you can see by the picture all she cared about was what was on TV at the time as she keeps looking towards the TV.