Bathtime Fun

Cora is now big enough to take a bath with Kayley and I don't know who enjoys it more, Kayley or Cora. In fact, the other day Cora had a huge blowout diaper and I gave her a bath and just as I was getting her dressed, Kayley came in and asked why she wasn't taking a bath. After I told her, she thought for a minute and said she had food in her hair from dinner even though she had no food in her hair and we hadn't even eaten dinner yet. She's our little mermaid, she even claims that her name is Ariel!

Backrub?

Back rub anyone? Cora likes Kayley to give her a backrub...every now and then. She likes it until Kayley gets too rough, then Cora is finished. I think that Kayley is just trying to teach Cora how to give backrubs and I know for a fact that Kayley LOVES backrubs....she is my girl!! :)

My Cooking Helpers

This is usually where the girls end up when I'm cooking...they are my biggest fans and can't be in the room without me! Cora especially can't be without me...it's sweet, but can be tiresome at times, so I give her her special chair so I can do my cooking. Kayley then feels left out and needs her special chair right beside her. Maybe this means they will love cooking when they get older!! But sadly, they won't learn very many tips from me, I just know the basics!

Fun at the Park in February

These pics were actually taken on the one Saturday in February (the 4th) that was really nice weather. We didn't make it to the park though until early evening when the temp. decreased dramatically. It was still fun, but we had to bundle up! The girls loved the slide!

Cool Shades

I had to get pics of the two of them with these shades...aren't we all ready for summer yet?

My Sleeper

Cora fell asleep after me changing her diaper. I think I got occupied with Kayley and she was enjoying being by herself, then just decided to take a nap...she's pretty easy going.

Kayley & Ashlyn: Buddies

It sure was cute to watch Kayley try and pull Ashlyn...it was pretty hard for her, not because Ashlyn is fat, but because she would start trying when it was uphill. They both had a blast!

Kayley and Ashlyn are always up for some fun when they head to Grandma's house. And of course, whatever Kayley does, Ashlyn comes too. They love Grandma's wagon and Kayley loves pushing Ashlyn. They stopped for a split second to pose for a picture!

Shannon & John's Wedding Reception

Ok...So I'm a little late in puting these pics up...but better late than never. These are from Shannon and John's reception in January at Willard. Don't they look like they should already have kids? If our kids weren't so perfect, maybe we'd loan ours out to them!

The reception was lots of fun with lots of neat decorations! We were all really impressed and of course it was great catching up with everyone!

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!