Girls banging pots and pans for New Years 2010

Ok...I didn't realize my voice was SO loud when I was taping this video of the girls...oh well. It was fun having them up for New Years this year. We had a party with Grandma (Nick's mom) who came up and surprised the girls for the weekend. When she got there that evening, the girls opened the door and just started running aroudn the house screaming with excitement! New Year's was fun since we all got our "party clothes" (our PJ's) on and had lots of fun snacks we had all made. We (I) even got to get some "special juice" (Welch's sparkling grape juice, which I could drink everyday...especially being pregnant!) The girls had lots of fun! The girls got to bang pots and pans after watching the ball drop and we had to call Daddy on the phone and wish him a Happy New Year over the phone as he was on call that night and sadly got called in right at 11:45pm...he got to spend his new years with an 85 year old patient! It was a fun celebration and we hope all had a great New Years as well!

Our Christmas 2009

Ok...it's been a while since we've posted, but such is life! We had a great Christmas! I'm really sad that it's over as it's been so fun to see the girls get so excited about Santa Clause and Christmas in general. We were lucky to have Nick have a 5 day weekend for Christmas, which was really nice since last year he was on call for Christmas! Here are some pictures from our Christmas.

Here's the Sunday before Christmas with the girls' Christmas dresses. Kayley was not having a good morning and it reminded me of myself when I was younger and being upset about doing things like this at times. So, I only got Cora to smile, who we can always count on a smile, but I still think they looked pretty in their dresses.

Then here are some pictures a couple of days before Christmas of the girls in their Santa Claus hats. I love them in their hats as they are actually adult hats and are way big for them! It's fun! They also did some good silly faces.

And I'm just cheesy as I love to coordinate the girls outfits any chance I can! So here are their coordinating Christmas Eve outfits. I only got a few without Kayley's cheesy grins...and of course Cora had to do a cheesy grin as well!

For Christmas Eve, the Carles came over and made cookies for Santa Claus with us. It was lots of fun...the girls enjoyed of course having their cousins over and also eating all the icing they could eat! They also put out carrots for Rudolph that night as he definitely needed it trying to get through the snow we got Christmas Eve.

Here's the girls hanging up their stockings Christmas Eve. Growing up my Mom made all of our stockings as a kid and I still have mine today. So to carry on the tradition I've made all the girls stockings, as well as Nick's. Also as a tradition we would always have father/child interviews with the video camera while hanging our stockings Christmas Eve. I'm going to try to upload the videos I got of the girls after this.

Here they are with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads Christmas Eve night. Even notice that Kayley wanted to sleep with the Night Before Christmas book that night (it's up by her head.)

Christmas morning was lots of fun to see them open their presents. Cora had asked for a new baby, which she got and loves it dearly. Santa Claus also got her a new Einstein doll so that Mommy now longer has to hear about the fights between Kayley and Cora over Kayley's Einstein doll. Kayley had asked for a Rainbow Brite dress, new Dorothy shoes that sparkle, and a Dorothy doll. She got all three, except Santa thought Kayley was extra special and instead of just getting her a Dorothy doll, she got the whole crew, Glenda, wicked witch, lion, tinman, scarecrow, Toto, and Dorothy. Kayley was pretty excited and grateful to Santa for getting her all of them! She also learned what the term "White Christmas" meant that morning. I had asked them if they were so excited that it was a white christmas? She didn't know what that meant so I told her to go look outside and told her that it was because of all the snow outside. She said, "I thought Christmas was just red!" Now she knows that Christmas can be white too with the snow! Kayley also got a Little Einstein's learning laptop computer. When she opened it, she was excited that it had a "dot com" like Daddy's (pointing to the mouse on the computer)! We got a chuckle out of that, but she later corrected herself and told us it was a mouse and that you could look up "dot com" on her computer now since she has a mouse like Daddy's mouse. It was cute! It was a great Christmas and it was so much fun watching the girls open their presents.

Later that day we headed to Nick's Mom's house for Christmas weekend and had a great weekend with the Bell family. We froze our rears off at Silver Dollar City, but the girls loved it and were excited to go one more time for the year. I didn't get any pictures though as my fingers would have frozen off if I did it was so cold! It was a great Christmas!

Kayley hanging her stocking

Cora Hanging her stocking

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox scrapbook Enjoy our Christmas Card for this year and we hope you all have a great Christmas! Love, the Bells!

Christmas in July

Well, we will get to celebrate Christmas twice within the next year. Once in December as normal and we will get a special Christmas in July with the addition of our 3rd child. We are 10 weeks along now. Baby is doing well and thankfully there is only one in there. I was feeling a lot more movement and I've already started to show as early as 10 weeks (which is abnormal for me as even with Cora I didn't start to show until at least 16-18 weeks), so with those symptoms as well as my family history of my brother and sister being fraternal twins and my mom's sisters also being fraternal twins, the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to make sure there was only one. We would have thankfully accepted having twins, but I'm a bit relieved!! :) When I told my mom I was pregnant and thinking it was twins, she just laughed! Then when I told her it was only one, she was like, "well, somebody has to have them!" So, Mary or Sarah, I think it's up to you guys!! :) Baby was measuring right on schedule and everything looks good. I'm still feeling quite a bit of nausea and I hope that goes away soon. I'm feeling a lot more tired with this one than any of the other two, but I guess part of that has to do with the fact that I'm also chasing around 2 instead of 1 or none this time.

Last weekend was when Randy and Marchelle were in town for their Christmas weekend so all the Bell siblings were in town as well. So we decided to tell his family that weekend. What was also funny was that we told the girls in the car on the way to Michelle and Kendall's house, as that was the only time that weekend we had alone with the girls to let them know before we told the rest of Nick's family in person, Kayley responded, "I know there's a baby, Cora already told me in a bedtime story one night." Then they went back and forth on if they wanted a boy or a girl, they have both settled on wanting a baby sister. Then as soon as we got to Michelle's house Kayley told Ashlyn her mommy has a baby in her belly and Ashlyn immediately said, "No, my mommy has a baby in her tummy!" They got into a small argument about who's Mommy had a baby in their tummy. It was cute, but I had to hush Kayley as we still hadn't made the big announcement to everyone, but all went well.

We are excited and anxiously, but patiently awaiting July 9th. The fun part is my cousin who's birthday is one day before mine is due the same day with their first one. That would be really cool if both of them were born on the same day. I would even take it early on Grandpa Sargent's birthday, July 3rd! :) Too bad they don't live by us!! So Olivia and Nathan I think you need to start heading towards Missouri before July 9th so our kids can be best friends!! :)

Christmas is Here at the Bell House

Santa Claus came to our house a couple of weeks ago. The city of Grain Valley has a group of volunteers that drive around in Santa's sleigh house to house in Grain Valley on Saturdays starting after Thanksgiving up until Christmas. They have police escorts and everything! I was excited this year as Cora did not scream as much as last year when Santa came to our house! Plus we couldn't have asked for a better day as the weather was perfect!! Poor Santa Claus and Mrs Claus was probably hot! Santa Claus also gives out toys to the children from his sack after they sit on his lap and tell them what they want for Christmas. The girls each got a bear from him. It was cute because Kayley was like, "I have never had a real teddy bear before, how did Santa know!?" I always worry that they are going to expect Santa to get them what they have asked for all year right there instead of on Christmas morning. So far that connection has not hit thankfully!

We also put up our Christmas tree a few days later. The girls were so excited to get it up. We waited until Nick got home to put it up as it's always been a big thing in my family to put the tree up together as a family. My Dad's cousin has always given us (my siblings) a handful of ornaments each year for Christmas and now she continues that tradition with our own kids. She always puts our names on them so we know which ones are ours. So it is always fun to open the ornaments each year and reminisce on all the memories and now that my girls are a little bit bigger this is their favorite part. We had a lot of fun putting it up and it's getting more fun each year as the girls get bigger and get more excited each year about Christmas.

Here's our finished product! It's small, but it's our tree! :)

Last of our gymnastics

The girls' gymnastic class is officially over now, but we had so much fun doing it! They are both really good at listening to instructions from the teacher and doing the moves. We were really impressed. They both were the best behaved students in their classes. Here's a fun video of Cora doing one of her moves...I sometimes think she was meant to be a monkey! It's cute! We now know that they both enjoy this and are good at it, so we might do it next year with Kayley as she won't start school for another year and a half.

Grandma Edna

For those of you who know people in my family have probably already heard or read about this, but I haven't gotten a chance to blog about it yet. About almost a month ago now my Grandma Edna passed away, rather unexpectedly of a heart attack. It was a bitter sweet passing for me. For one I was super glad that we got to see her in September only 3 weeks before she passed on our way down to New Orleans. I was so glad for this visit as I now have the assurance that hopefully for sure Kayley will and hopefully Cora will have some remembrance of her. However as I was gathering all the pictures I have of Grandma (at least digital ones) I noticed that I regretfully don't have any pictures of Cora with Grandma or Grandpa for that matter! I was going to take a picture of them with Grandma in September when we were visiting her then, but I didn't think about it until right before we left and Grandma had been in the middle of taking a nap. We had to wake her up to say good-bye...I didn't want to shove a camera in her face as she just woke up! But, Cora does have her own special connection with Grandma with her name. We had originally decided on Cora's name based on the fact that it was Greek (Nick is part Greek) and then as we decided on it, Grandma informed us that she had an aunt named Cora...so it's a family name after all!

With Grandma's passing I've had many great memories come to mind as well as happy thoughts. I remember at Grandpa's funeral, the saddest part for me was to watch Grandma say good-bye to Grandpa at his casket. I could also hear the saddness in Grandma's voice everytime I talked to her on the phone. When I heard of her passing, my thoughts immediately went to the thought that she is now with Grandpa and the happiness they are sharing together!

But some other fun memories that I have of my Grandma was going over there almost every Sunday after church to play with cousins. Grandma would always make us tuna of some sort with tomato soup (no stranger to me as this is what the Felker's ate every Sunday too!) But Grandma made the best tuna melts, which we never got at home! We would also have cousin sleepovers and Grandma would willingly sleep out on the couch with us so we wouldn't get scared in the living room. It also didn't take much begging from me to have Little Cesar's Pizza at Grandma's house! Yummy!! I remember when I was younger and Grandma would take each grandkid shopping for their birthday. I remember walking the old mall in Sikeston with Grandma on my birthday and enjoying that special time with just her! I also remember going to McDonald's with her every now and then. When we'd go she'd let me get a happy meal if I wanted, but oftentimes I would want to get a chicken salad so I could be like her. After we were done with our meal I remember her often letting me get an apple pie. When I would get to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house by myself I got to sleep in their bed. Grandma would sleep in the middle so she could be by Grandpa and I would sleep on the outside. Grandma would always put a chair next to me so I wouldn't fall off...I would often end up in the chair when I woke up! Grandma also had her special stash of trident gum and candy (chocolate!) She would often let us pick out some gum or some candy. Grandpa would often go to the store to buy us some food while we were there and come back with all the different kinds of foods....some funky type foods too...Grandma would always roll her eyes and always say, "Oh Daddy!" Grandma also loved the Cardinals...I remember her always drinking Diet Coke in her cardinals cup and she didn't like ice in it. She and Grandpa would also let us have our own pop...my favorite was purple crush at their house. Grandma and Grandpa were also some of my biggest fans at my sporting events in high school. They would come to pretty much all of my home games and almost all of my away games. If for whatever reason my mom couldn't make it, I would ride home with them and talk to them about my performance. I hope they knew how much I really appreciated this support from them. Sports were a big part of my high school life and it was difficult at times to not have my Dad there to watch me as sports were his passion. To have the support of them meant so much to me and I hope they know how grateful I am to them for that! One of Grandma's favorite desserts from fast food was the frosty from Wendy's. I remember coming home to visit once and Nick and I went to go get her a frosty...she just loved it so much that we thought of her and brought that back for her! There are other many memories of my Grandma, she was a wonderful Grandma and I will miss her dearly! However I am so glad that she has been able to be a part of many important stages in my life, single and married.

Grandma and Grandpa got to go to my wedding in 2003. They were both their during my sealing. My Grandpa of course was known by his black cowboy hat and his mustache...which Grandma teased him saying she wouldn't kiss him unless he shaved it off. Grandpa would reply, "why do you think I grow it out." They always had a teasing way of showing affection towards each other.

They also got to meet Kayley almost right after she was born. Grandma kept saying she was so beautiful and said she was going to be the next Miss Sikeston! She also kept apologizing for giving Kayley a double crown. I'm glad that Kayley has one as she can say she has a double crown like Grandma Edna.

Grandma and Grandpa also got to come up for Kayley's blessing. Grandpa was able to stand in the circle and that was such a neat experience for me to have both of them there for that great moment in mine and Nick's life...and Kayley's too! :)

We also got to go visit them a couple of times down in Memphis after they moved in with the Hathaways. What a blessing they were to them and our family! They took such great care of them! This was during the time when Grandpa was growing out his hair for locks of love. Another teasing moment for Grandma and Grandpa!

Grandma and Grandpa also came up to Columbia a few times in addition to the blessing weekend. This was just a random visit I believe. I can't remember what they were up here for, but we got to go visit them at their hotel.

Another visit later the following year also in Columbia. Kayley didn't quite know who they were so it was a bit overwhelming for her and Audrey, but we are glad they got to visit with us.

Then, of course this is during the dinner after Grandpa's funeral. I should have thought to get pictures with her then of us, but didn't think about it as there were so many cousins there and so much going on it slipped my mind!

Then these are pictures of Grandma's funeral weekend. We had so much fun getting to catch up with so many cousins we hadn't seen in a while and our kids got to play with their kids! It was tons of fun! These first two groups are of all the kids swimming at the Drury Inn. Almost all of my family were staying there, but even the ones who didn't stay there bombarded the pool and the Drury people probably didn't know what hit them! Check out Nick's attire for getting the girls to swim!! :) Jack, Mary, & Andrew were the only brave ones...well Jack and Mary were the ones in the freezing cold pool water...Andrew enjoyed the nice hot tub water!! :)

More swimming at the pool...

Taking Nick, Kayley, and Cora to Kirby's for the first time! It was good, but a little more expensive than I remember it being...I guess that's just b/c I'm an adult with my own finances now instead of relying on Mom and Dads! We also toured a bit of Downtown Sikeston at the Train Station/Museum. Carrie Yanson had quite a bit of items there on display from Yanson's Jeweler's. It was neat to see that part of Sikeston/history and to show Nick and my girls. We also got to see Carrie's new dog Liberty...who was so cute and sweet! I'm sure she's much bigger now! We also got to see Mrs. Johnson and got a picture of all of us and Mom with her. She was our maid/babysitter when we were younger. She was almost like our third Grandma to us and us to her. Her whole family is really special to our family!

Just some other fun pictures of the event. All of the Sargent cousins were there except one and her husband and one of our cousin's husband was also not there, but everyone else was and it was so neat to get everyone together again! I wish it could have lasted longer!

More fun pics...What a great reunion it was! Family sure is a great blessing and I'm so thankful for mine...all of them!!

Halloween 2009 and other events

For some reason I can't stay up to date on my blog...it must be that I'm spending too much time on the computer getting ready for Christmas!! Anyway, here are pics from Halloween and other things we have been up to lately.

As some of you may already know, Kayley is really into Dorothy right now! She loves Dorothy everything. So, we dressed up as a Wizard of Oz family this year for Halloween. Kayley was obviously Dorothy, Cora was the Wicked Witch of the West, I was Glenda the good witch and Nick was the scarecrow. The costumes weren't too extravagant as I was just lucky to get Nick to dress up in general!! :) I did however spend a lot of time (a whole night in fact) fixing Cora's green gloves, which she refused to wear half the time! The wicked witch's skin is bright green so I searched everywhere for green gloves and green socks as I knew if I were to paint her face or skin, that wouldn't go over very well. The only green gloves I could find were adult gardening gloves at Target...luckily the were only 50 cents so if I did mess them up, I wasn't wasting much money. But I made them smaller to fit her hands, which did take literally all night! It was cute though as she would say "I'm going to get you my pretty and your little dog too!" I can't type it as cute as she would say it, but it was cute! So here is all of us at the ward party before Halloween! And of course Cora refused to wear her gloves in this pic, but they are on in other pics below.

These are pics of the Halloween party at Michelle's house. They did a bunch of fun games and here are pics of the cake walk type game and the broom/pumpkin game (not really sure what the official names of the games were, but the kids had fun doing them!

Here's some more pics of the girls' costumes. We went trick or treating with the Carles, I mean the transformer (Edward), the southern Belle (Olivia), The mad scientist (Judson), and Tinkerbell (Katrina). The kids had fun, but we didn't get to go as long as we wanted to as they got hungry fast. But it was fun to do it with friends and family.

Then I have to admit that these pictures are actually taken a whole week after Hallowwen! yes we didn't have our pumpkins carved in time for Halloween, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all! We of course couldn't get the girls to even touch the inside, but it was still fun. Nick told the girls stories with the pumpkin telling it. The pumpkin's name was Harry I believe, but it was cute cause we had the lights off with the candle in it and the girls really thought the pumpkin was the storyteller!

Also a couple of weeks ago we went down to Willard and took another trip to Silver Dollar City. I've never seen it so packed in my life! It was the opening day of their Christmas festivities and it was nuts! We waited 20 min just to park our car! So we had to decide/cut down our plans for the day on rides/shows. We did fit in one ride on the frogs with the girls (their fav ride!) then the living nativity show, then we split and I took Cora on the butterfly ride and Nick took Kayley on the elephant ride, then we met and did the Frosty the snowman show. Then we squeezed in for a spot for the light parade. After the parade was over, the police officer was behind the last light display and behind him was a mob of people, so we grabbed all our stuff and walked right behind the police officer, it again took us 20 min to get out of the park and to our car...but it was fun and the girls had fun so it made for some fun memories!

This month the girls have also been doing Gymnastics. It has been so fun watching them do their classes! Kayley does the class with the teacher and Cora is in parent/tot class where one of us have to be with her throughout the class. The teacher has been great and the girls have loved every bit of their classes. It's cute to watch them get all ready in their gymnastics clothes and get excited to go to their class. Here are some pics of their classes.