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!

4th of July Dresses

Well, Michelle and I ventured out on making pillow case dresses this last week. Boy, do we have a greater respect for those who a) sew in general and b) for those who work in a sweat shop just pumping out clothing items left and right! (They should probably get paid more by the way!) Anyway, I had found the directions from my sister-in-law and she was like, “they are so easy!” She also didn’t realize that I don’t have much experience sewing, except from the 7th grade home-ec class. This being said was why we picked to do pillowcase dresses; we thought it couldn’t be THAT hard! Well, with the 4th of July coming up we thought it would be cute to do red, white, and blue dresses. After 2 days of working on them (granted we also had to corral kids during the process and share the time of seeing our new niece at the same time)…so the time was sporadic for a while, but then on Friday we buckled down and got them finished with the help of Mooma helping us and also helping with an extra hand with the kids! They turned out great (from my opinion) and way cuter than I had expected! I also made hairbows, but we don’t have those pictured, but Kayley and Cora are getting their pics taken together this week in them with their dresses, so I’ll have to post those later when we get the pics. I think I’ll continue to just find our dresses on clearance, but it was fun to make them and I’m glad I did it and know a little bit more about sewing. Oh…and we also made Addison one, so hopefully this next weekend we’ll get pics of them altogether wearing them.

My Running Girls

Lately Nick and I have tried to be a bit more active by running, doing work out videos and Nick has recently taken up cycling. Well, when I go running, the girls wait for me to get home and then I come and get them and turn on the music and they run around the cul-de-sac with me. It is so cute! Kayley runs like crazy and loves for me to play her song on the I-phone as loud as it will go and Cora takes her arms and swings them really fast as if she is running fast when in reality she is walking. But, it is so cute! I keep trying to get Nick to video it, so when he does, I’ll have to post it!

The girls are growing so much and getting so smart! Within the last week Cora’s vocabulary has pretty much doubled! She is talking in full sentences and a lot more clearly. However, with her increased vocabulary comes some extra clumsiness. For some reason that girl has started to trip over thin air! It’s not like she just started to walk, she’s walked for a long time now. But, she falls about 4-5 times on a daily basis at the least! That is one regrettable gene that I sadly passed on to her! I was always the one that tripped falling up the stairs.

Kayley is starting to pay attention to more details. The other day we picked up Nick from work and “Indian Summer” was on by Brooks N Dunn. Then later that night it was on again and she told us that that was the same song that was on when we picked up Daddy from work. Then she proceeded to tell us that it was the same singer as the song “Cowgirls Don’t Cry”…well even I didn’t know they were the same singers, so I had to double check, but yes, Brooks N Dunn does sing both songs! Amazing that she knew that! Also the other day Cora was telling us that her sippie was empty and Kayley said, “empty sippie starts with the letter e” She really is starting to get the hang of learning her letters and it’s fun to see her learning and her eagerness to learn!

A Few Posts...take a look...

Who says you can't do yard work with kiddos!?! Today Nick and I were mowing the lawn and I did the front and he did the back after me while I weed-eated. Cora was supposed to sit on the deck and just watch Daddy, but when I opened the gate to weed-eat the backyard, this is what I found. It was so cute! I just had to run inside and grab my camera and catch a shot! She really was just walking around while he was mowing, so sweet! :)

Oh...and do you see my garden in the background?!! We officially got it in the other day, finally! We put up a fence around it so einstein won't get into it...it's so big that even the dog can't get into the garden if he were on his hind legs and on a stool...but can't pass up that we got a great deal on all the supplies through craigslist! We also have to keep our hose inside the fence so he doesn't chew that up...but I guess it's a bit more work, but it's worth it.

This is a collage of a couple of different things. First are pictures of the girls playing in our old sink/faucet. We just replaced our sink/faucet to a new one, which I love now thanks to my great hubby! But the old one we listed on craigslist and put it downstairs until it sold and when I was getting it ready to take pictures, I found the girls playing in it. The other pictures are fun pics of the girls with Olivia, Audrey, and Lauren. Andrew and Sarah were coming through from their trip back from Montana and stopped and met us and the Carles for dinner at Godfathers. It's cute because ever since then, Cora has named all her babies Sarah and they were also pretending to be dogs the other night and she also said her name was Sarah. Aren't cousins so fun!?!



On Memorial Day we went to a Royal's Game with Michelle and Kendall and Patsy and James. It was almost all of ours first Royal's game, except Kendall I think. To think that we've lived here for 2 years and this was our first game. Oh well...it was fun and cheap! We did have to sit only 5 rows from the very top, but we did get $5 tickets, and it was also buck night so we got hotdogs, pop, and peanuts for a buck each...granted they weren't the best hotdogs as Nick could attest to that for you as he got sick, but it's a dollar!! :) It was fun and the girls did great! I think we may go again sometime!

What am I in for?

Ok..today Cora got into my makeup...and boy did she get into it!! So much that I ended up just throwing her in the bathtub after I used about half of my eye make-up remover to get it off just her arms! Needless to say I was a bit upset, but couldn't clean her up until I got a snapshot of her...a picture says a thousand words! So, I put a picture of Kayley (about the same age, a bit older by a few months) next to Cora (who is younger) and Cora's make-up mess is MUCH more messy! So, I'm not for sure, but I do know they are complete opposites in a lot of ways and from this example and many others, Cora is a lot more sneaky and gets into a lot more things...just ask Nick...for some reason when I'm gone she knows just how to push his buttons on getting into things. So, I think we are in for it with her! And people ask me why I'm not ready for another one yet!?!?! Welp...there's your answer! But, we wouldn't have it any other way and just love our little Cora!

Penguin Park

Well, yesterday we got up at the crack of dawn to take Quentin and Natalie to the airport by 8am. The airport is about an hour away from our house or so, which meant we had to get up by 6:15 and get dressed and breakfast and out the door by 7. For those of you who know me, that is not only early for me, but for our girls too. They are usually pretty good about sleeping in. Well, we decided to try and make the most of it and go to Michelle's and play with Ashlyn and Preston since the airport is only about 15-20 minutes from their house. We decided to take advantage of the great weather and go to Penguin Park...what a fun park! It has big animals that have slides in them. There's a picture that didn't turn out too well, but we are all hanging our heads out of a stomach of a Kangaroo...sort of anyway. We thought there was a spot to sit by the baby joey and take your pic, but it ended up being a big hole to the ground and then the joey....so instead of risking all our lives, we just settled for a dark hang your head over the side pic. But it didn't turn out too great with the lighting, so I didn't put it in. But, there is also all the fun toys that I remember at parks when I was growing up to play with. It was fun and the kids of course loved getting play with their cousins.

Nada Mucho...Just an Update

Well, I just realized that it's been a really long time that I've posted anything and an even longer time since I've posted any pictures. Well, we haven't been up to much. But I guess the spring cleaning bug has hit here as Nick and I have been working on small projects here and there to our house...just projects that we want to do when we sell the house...we're not moving, but I always hear people say that once they get their house ready to sell that they want to stay and live in it now....so Nick and I compiled a list, well I compiled a list of things I wanted to do and we've been slowly working on them. One of our big projects was to put down rock in our landscaping and pull up all our mulch....what a job!! And it's still not finished yet! Then we are putting ceiling fans in the girls' room...what a difference it's already made in Kayley's room...she got the first fan since she has two windows instead of one. We are also planning on staining our deck, maybe next week when the rain slows down. Then, we are also replacing our outdoor lights with new ones. Then I'm also trying to convince Nick to paint the kitchen, our bathroom, and the basement...not getting very far there, even though I'm the one doign the work on this...we just can't agree on colors. Now it's time for us to plant our garden...another ongoing big project, but well worth it in the end. We'll do that next week or the next. I've also been busy being sucked in by Twilight series! I'm on eclipse and loving it, but it is slow comign with also trying to balance household things and being a mom...so I always have to choose wisely what I can do while they are taking their nap and then try to get in some me time too. Oh...the joys of motherhood! :)

The girls haven't been up to much either...just having fun in the nice weather. I found Kayley a big girl bike with training wheels for $5 at a garage sale and she is about to drive me batty with trying to ride it! She tells us she doesn't have big leg muscles to ride it. So I end up pushing her the whole way. She insists on riding her baby bike (by pushing her feet on the ground, not the pedals) or riding her scooter. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer we will be riding our bike! Kayley is also really into Dorothy now. She went over to Katrina's house and watched it once then realized Dorothy was a princess and then that week I found both a dress for a dollar (pictured below) that works for her dress and I also found a VHS copy of Wizard of Oz for a quarter at a garage sale. So she watches that about once a day or every other day and asks to wear her dress almost everyday...so we end up wearing it about 4 times a week. By next week she'll probably be into a new princess! :)

Cora is learning lots of new things...some things we are not excited about...spitting, hitting, and taking things away from her sister. We've been having to do a lot of naughty mat and taking away her baby (whom she absolutely adores!) But, it doesn't help that her big sister also does some of these things too so we're trying to balance it all with discipline and love with them. But, for the most part they still play well together and enjoy each other's company. In fact, I found them playing very nicely today in Kayley's bedroom...so I quickly took a snapshot so I can remind myself that they do love each other!! :) But, also this month we took our first attempt at potty training...it only lasted about a day if not less, but she did pee in the potty about 2-3 times and then pooped in her underwear about 2-3 times so I decided we weren't ready or I wasn't ready to take this challenge on. I liked that Kayley was trained in 1 1/2 weeks...I am willing to wait as long as I can with Cora if she can train as quickly as Kayley! Unless she is waiting until it's time for her to go to school! :) So we're back to diapers, but she does now tell me when she's poopy...which is progress in my book!

We are anxiously awaiting our pool to open up and I'm so grateful that we have a neighborhood pool...not only so the girls can get out and have some fun in the sun...but I can also hopefully try to work on my tan while chasing them around the pool!! :) And it helps that it's only 1/2 block away from our house too so we also get in some exercise.