Deanna Rose and Cow Appreciation Day

So, I've gotten a new computer and I'm still trying to get all my pictures uploaded and organized how I want them, which means my blog gets neglected! Not that I was the best blogger to begin with. So here's what we have been up to lately.

Here's Rex at one of our many recent trips to Best Buy (trying to decide which computer to buy). The girls favorite place at Best Buy is where the Leap Frogs are. Even though they have one at home, it's more fun to play with them at Best Buy I guess. Rex got right in on the fun and just looked so cute and such like a big boy.

Then a few weeks ago Shannon and Addison got to play with us for a few days while Uncle John had to work. We went to Liberty for Ashlyn's 5th Birthday Party (my camera died on me during taking pictures, so I don't have any of that.) But afterward we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead and boy was it hot! We also didn't realize that we got there at 4:15 and they closed at 5! So we went through quickly, trying to dodge all the workers who kept trying to already scoot us out the door! Here is Kayley feeding the fish. She really liked to try to feed them and saw a few turtles in the water too.
Cora got in on the action too as well as Ashlyn and Preston. Addison did a little bit, but mainly watched the bigger cousins feed them.
Posing on the bench together. I know I'm a horrible Mom for not taking Rex out of his stroller to sit with everyone, but I knew once I took him out he would be really upset to go back in and unlike Garrett, he's not walking yet and I wasn't about to lug that boy around in that heat! He's heavy and it was blasted hot!
And Kayley and Addison are almost joint at the hip when they are around each other. It's really cute to see Kayley reach out and help Addison in whatever she needs almost without asking and it's also really cute to watch Addison and how much she looks up to Kayley. Kayley can pretty much get her to do anything!
Rex was mesmerized by all the animals. We would get near one and he wouldn't take his eyes off of them...as seen in this picture!
This is all of them waiting to go in (sorry I uploaded them backwards this time!) We actually got them all to hold hands very willingly at first!
And this is what Rex has been doing lately. He's learned how to get up and down from the fireplace by himself. It's really cute. This day he got up there and just kept kicking his feet like he was king of the fireplace! He also does this on the couch now. One of his favorite things to do is to sit on the couch by me or by the girls while we are watching tv and he'll just start giggling at the tv like crazy and look at the girls or us and then giggle again at the tv. It's really cute!
And of course, we had to go to Chick-fil-a's Cow Appreciation Day! Free food...this family is there! I had us all in white shirts (including Nick, but he refused to let me take his picture, but he did dress up, including the cow ears!) We each had ears, noses (that didn't stay on very well), cow-tails, spots, and our "eat more chikin" signs. And we each got to pick out our own value meal and the girls got their own happy meals and Rex got his very own 3 piece of chicken strips! It was fun and the funny part was to see how Kayley was starting to notice that this was a bit embarrassing as she told me she didn't want to wear the nose or the tail. She didn't complain once she knew she'd get a happy meal though!
And me with the girls and Rex. He sure was a cute "eat more chikin" sign!
And earlier the same day we had gone to the pool to swim and Rex was just too cute trying to eat my peach! I just want to squish him he's so cute...don't you!?!

4th of July Festivities 2011

This last Monday was the 4th of July and we had a pretty busy day but it was lots of fun! We started with a 4th of July Bike Parade the Saturday before. This was our 2nd year doing the bike parade in our neighborhood. It's fun because this is a tradition that Nick did as a kid and it's fun that now our kids get to have the same tradition. Well, we battled the heat and it was really hot because there were probably only about 10 bike riders there total! I think they all decided to swim instead as the pool was hoppin' when the parade was over. Cora actually rode her bike the whole time this year, with a little bit of help from Nick, but it was better than last year she only rode it outside of the school parking lot and rode on Michelle's shoulders the rest of the time. Rex actually got to participate this year. Last year he slept in his punkin' seat being only a few days old. He was just relaxing away in the wagon. Kayley was a little speed demon as I had to speed walk to catch up with her. She was all the way in the front with the police escort!
Here they are before the race...

And after the race enjoying their popsicles. Rex was in 7th heaven and devoured his! We even got one since there weren't that many people participating!

Then on the 4th itself, Rex got to have a second birthday party, thanks to Ashlyn's birthday celebration and the fact that Grandma Bell and Michelle were out of town for his actual birthday party. Can you see Kayley's face in this picture? As soon as she saw Ashlyn's cake, she told Michelle, "wow! you have to teach my Mom how to do that for my birthday party!" Michelle had bought a sheet of icing off of Ebay with personalization on it and a picture of Rapunzel. Both Kayley and Cora want a Rapunzel party and agreed to have it together...so I think I'm going to have to re-create this cake for them!

And since Michelle wasn't at Rex's original party, we had to get pictures in the birthday crown and shirt he borrowed from Garrett. Isn't he cute!??! And of course he knew exactly what to do with the cake this time around when he blew the candles out. So much that when it came to opening presents, he didn't want to wait to eat his cake. So I had to keep giving him some licks of icing to tide him over till he got to eat his own cake.

And then we let him eat his own cake again so Grandma Bell could see him get all cute and messy. He definitely enjoyed it and literally devoured all the cake so much that he lifted his plate when he was done to look under it to see if there was anymore cake. It was fun!

Then we ate dinner and headed out to William Jewel college for the 4th of July festivities there. They had bounce houses and fireworks. The kids had a blast being together. They even got to sit in an ambulance.

The first bounce house was a single slide and the kids did great getting up to the top and sliding down it. So much that Kayley and Preston almost went at the same time!

Then the biggest one was one that we knew our kids weren't going to make it through on their own. Luckily one of Michelle's friends' brother and sister were both there. I was going to go in with all four, but they volunteered to go through with them. As you can see from the bottom right picture, Cora slipped on one of the small slide parts and apparently got jarred a little bit, but made it through without crying. It was fun!

Then we waited for the fireworks show. We forgot Nick's hunting earmuffs this year, so the fireworks were really loud for the girls, but they survived! This is why I don't have any pictures of them watching fireworks or of the fireworks themselves and I was using both hands to shield Kayley's ears, which were sitting on top of Kayley's hands also shielding her ears. Rex of course loved the fireworks! It was a fun 4th of July!

Rex's Birthday Pictures

So Rex has been 1 year old now for a whole week and I still can't believe I have a 1 year old! It is very true what they say, the more kids you have, the quicker time flies by! I even have some inner guilt thinking, have I gotten enough video or pictures of him compared to the girls? Oh well, I'm sure he'll appreciate what I have gotten of him. Rex is such a sweet little boy. We have always been blessed with having very easy going children from the start. Rex has been by far the easiest even though he has had his moments (pregnancy and around 2 months a little extra fussiness) but other than that, he really has been a great baby! He sleeps great sleeping through the night without waking up at all. We put him down around 9 or 10 and he sleeps until about 9 or 10 the next morning. Then he takes about a 4 hour nap in the afternoon (if we're at home) and then he'll even take a 30-45 min cat-nap in the early evening, then back to bed around 9 or 10. And when we aren't at home for naptime, he's pretty easy going even if he doesn't get all the sleep he wants with only a little bit of fussiness. He can play "bonk", hide and go seek, blow kisses (which is really cute with his chubby hands!), do "big boy", and say Mamama..., and a little bit of Dadada... He has almost 7 teeth. Three for sure in on top with one coming through and two for sure on bottom with another one coming through. He's very calm during his teething too with almost no signs of pain! He cruises along furniture very well now and likes to climb up on our fireplace and he's learning how to come down a little at a time. He's not quite brave to start taking his own steps yet, but he's standing on his own a little here and there without holding onto anything. He had a blast for his birthday I think and still loves to play with all of his new toys.

We had quite the day for his birthday! It started out waking up to this sweet boy's face! And I can't remember if it was this day or a day or two after or before this day, but I woke him up from his nap and he grabbed my face to give me a kiss and then grabbed for my face even harder the next time and gave me a really big kiss again. It was really cute! I loved him from the first time I saw him in the hospital! It really is fun to have a little boy! I am loving to see all the differences between a little girl and a little boy!
Then we met some friends from our library storytime group to do some tie-dying for 4th of July. The kids have fun playing and Rex was very good staying in his stroller the whole time while we tie-dyed...have I said he's a great baby!?!? It was blasted hot, but we got them finished. They turned out looking pretty cute, but after a few washes they have faded quite a bit. But the girls loved being able to match Rex with their shirts! This is them lining up on the slide oldest to youngest, except Rex...I don't think they could have held one more kid!

Then the rest of the day was pretty crazy! I watched Sarah and Andrew's kids while Sarah went to the Dentist. Andrew was supposed to get home early to help with his kids, but ended up home really, really late. It was fine during naptime with Rex and Ruby asleep, but when they woke up it was kinda crazy because Ruby wasn't very used to me. Nick wasn't going to be home early as he had a meeting at St. Luke's and someone (ehem, Nick) got scheduling wrong and ended up being on call for both St. Luke's and Centerpoint at the same time! When he went to his meeting at St. Lukes, he had to finish a test before he got to come home. And then to make things worse or more gut-wrenching, he told me that they had let a tech go that day in the Nuclear Medicine department. Luckily it wasn't Nick, but it was pretty stressful thinking it could have been. We feel very blessed that he was spared and I know I'm very blessed to be married to such a hard worker! So, the party was supposed to start at 6pm and Sarah didn't get home till 5:45 or so and Nick and Andrew weren't even home by then. Luckily Mom showed up early to help me with the kids and the cooking and the cleaning and the baking! Thank you to Mom!! Either way, it was a fun party celebrating a very cute and sweet boy! Here are the pictures from the event!

Rex blowing out his candles and waiting for his presents. He didn't really know what to do with his cake....yet! But he sure learned later!

These are pictures of him playing with some of his toys he got. He loves balls and loves to put things into things....well, his presents were just as such and he loved everyone of them! It was really cute seeing him get so excited about all of his presents!

More presents and more playing with friends. His friend Anderson is only 2 months older than him and they were having a blast playing with each other. A lot of these pictures were taken after he already ate his cake which is why he's naked. A big thanks to my friend Jessica who took over taking pictures for me! We have the same camera so she knows how to work it and it was such a relief to know the pictures were taken care of!!

The big kids had a blast playing together and enjoyed sitting at the kids table both inside and outside!

And THE CAKE....it didn't take him long to figure out what to do with the cake. He demolished it! Jessica felt bad in not getting a before picture, but you can pretty much see what it looks like in this picture...a baseball.

See...as you can see, he demolished it! Well, it was a really successful party, even amongst all the stresses. And Nick and Andrew did in fact make it finally to the party, about 1 1/2 hours late, but they made it!

Father's Day 2011

So I know Father's Day was a week and a half ago, but alas I'm just now posting about it. Anyway...I tried to get creative this year with Father's Day because if anyone knows Nick, he gets what he wants, which is everything anytime he wants it making birthdays and anniversaries, fathers day, christmas, pretty much every holiday difficult to shop for him. He had just recently gotten a new gun as well as a new bike so he was lucky he got what we got him for Father's Day as he's gotten his next 50 presents with the previous ones listed. So I got this last minute idea to have the kids spell out Happy Father's Day with their bodies and make a banner for our fireplace. They had a blast doing it...the girls did at least. Rex was asleep for half of the letters and then he joined us for the last half and I barely got some good ones of him.

Here is the word "Happy"
Here is "Father"

And I couldn't get "Father's" to fit altogether so I had to put the " s" with "Day" here....And the apostrophe (who is Rex) was an accident that worked out great! This was one of his fussy times and I was trying to get the girls to do a good "s" and he kept trying to get me on my bed, so I just added him into the picture and made him the apostrophe!

And here's our finished product on our mantle. The girls were so excited to show Daddy. We were supposed to put it up while he was at his meetings before church and then it would be a surprise to him after he got home, but of course his meetings were cancelled because of Father's Day so we had to have him close his eyes while we put it up on the mantle. You may not be able to see the words from here, but they obviously spell out "Happy Father's Day"

And he got another surprise that he wasn't expecting...one that I was really excited about and excited to make. It's not put up yet as I'm waiting for the one of myself and the kids to come in the mail. It's a mounted wall art from shutterfly, similar to a canvas wall art, but a little different. They are pictures of all three kids with Nick when they were first born or shortly thereafter. Mine will be very similar to this and I'm going to put them both up in Rex's room. Can you tell which baby is which? It's not the best picture of it but hopefully you can tell. I'll have to post another picture later of both when I get them on the wall together. We also celebrated with Cashew Chicken of course! His absolute favorite meal of all time!

For those wondering, it's left to right: Kayley, Cora, and Rex.

And this picture I took earlier tonight...and I'm actually blogging about it!! Haha! But sadly both Rex and Cora have fevers...just in time for little Rex's 1st too! I was hoping his fever was due to his new tooth coming in, but then Cora ended up having a fever too...so even though we had fevers and colds last week, we have fevers AGAIN for some reason! Oh well, I just hope they get better fast! But Cora was resting on the couch this afternoon and zonked out two different times. She was really cute this second time with her arms folded.

The Magic House is full of Magic!!

So about a week and a half ago we went to St. Louis for a temple visit for Nick and I, got a hotel for the night and then went to the Magic House the next day for the kids. It was of course a great trip to the temple and the kids waited very patiently for us to finish our sessions. Then we headed to the hotel. The kids had a blast swimming in the pool...luckily for my sake it was pretty warm water. And I say luckily for me because hotel pools are usually way too cold for me and I end up spending my whole time in the hot tub. Sadly the hot tub closed right when we got there for the night to be clean. It was very saddening but pleasing at the same time because they actually drained the water completely and cleaned out the hot tub...so if we ever end up staying there again, at least I know they really do clean the hot tub! But the pool was pretty warm and we spent quite a while at the pool letting the kids swim. They had a blast! Then we got our complimentary cookies...YUMMY and took them to our room for a nighttime snack.

The next morning we just had a very leisurely morning and then got ready for the Magic House. Only our luck though it was pouring down rain when we were leaving. Nick lovingly went and got the car and he got DRENCHED! While we were waiting outside the hotel under the awning, two or three lightening crashes happened literally right next to us so the girls went balistic! But we survived, went to lunch, and then headed to the Magic House. This is probably the girls favorite place to go. And we've been there twice now and love it everytime! Rex now got to enjoy a little bit of it this time as the last time he was a little baby. We forgot the stroller so Nick willingly wore him in a front pack...what a trooper...that boy is HEAVY! So here are some pictures of our fun time at the Magic House!

Cora was sadly not old enough for some of the displays that Kayley could go in, but she was a very good sport about it and waited patiently for Kayley to finish...here she is waiting at the scientific area for Kayley.
They had an Alice in Wonderland display which the girls loved. When we were leaving the display we ran into some of the characters. They only wanted their picture taken with Alice. I didn't notice until I loaded the picture that Cora's eyes were funny...and they only wanted to take one picture. Oh well!

The water play area...this part reminds me of Paradise Park...as well as the grocery shopping part. The girls could have played for hours in both places.

Here's a pic of Rex who was also a great trooper in being happy having to stay in the front pack for so long. We did let him out in a few areas. We let him play for a long time in the under 2 section. They had slides and climbing places...he had a blast!

And then he found the ball pit........... Have a said that this boy LOVES balls...of any type or size! It took us a long time to get him away from the balls. It's like he's in his own element here. He had so much fun I couldn't even get him to look at the camera for a picture!

And more pictures of him enjoying himself. He loved looking at himself in the mirror. He kept talking to himself, it was cute. He also loved being able to stand and play with the girls in the pretend kitchen. The girls really weren't supposed to be in this section since it was for kids under 2, but they were the only three kids in that small part, so I didn't feel so bad letting them play with their brother!

Then there is the baby section!! Daddy got to rest his weary back on the nice recliner and Rex very patiently watched...did I tell you he was really good?

And you know how I mentioned Rex being in his element in the ball pit, the baby section was the girls' element! They wanted to play there for hours too! They loved being able to play doctor and weigh their babies, bath them, dress them, change them, you name it. I couldn't get them to look at the camera either they were having so much fun! And the last stop was the craft section. We almost didn't go to this section as we found out we were there the free family night and it was almost time for it to start. We wanted to miss the crowds and crowds of people that were lined up outside waiting to come in for free. We like free, but I think we would have passed on that even if we had known ahead of time...there were tons of people! But luckily none of them were itching to go to the craft section. The girls both painted pictures, I missed getting a picture of Kayley painting hers. And then Nick had a blast at the magnet part. They all three got into these magnetic pieces...not even sure what they are called, but I know now to look out for them for all the kids, including Nick! I think he found his element here! And Cora even did the beanstalk this time, the last time she was scared to do it and this time she went down with Kayley once. Kayley could spend hours in the beanstalk. The Magic House is so much fun and I'm sure we'll be back sometime soon the next time we're in St. Louis!

Arkansas and Branson for Memorial Day Fun

So this last weekend we very last minute decided to make a trip to Arkansas and Branson along with the rest of Nick's family for Memorial Day. Nick actually had a 5 day weekend, which was really nice as it was his four day weekend to begin with (what he usually has before the week he has to take call) and then he got an extra day off with Memorial Day being this last weekend. We originally were going to just take a trip to the Temple and then stay at home, but everyone in Nick's familiy was going to Silver Dollar City on Monday so we decided to join in on the fun since we would be the only ones not going if we didn't go. So we started out on Saturday heading to Arkansas to Shannon's house for Addison's 2nd birthday party. We actually stopped in Joplin and looked at some of the damage by the tornado, but weren't able to see all of it as the traffic was horrendous! Then we made it to Centerton for the party. It was fun with all the cousins there and some of Addison's friends. Can you tell they all had fun helping Addison open her presents? Needless to say Shannon was probably a little bit cramped!!
She also had all the kids made their own candy necklace. Kayley and Ashlyn were really the only ones who had the most patience for this kind of craft as all the other kids only strung a few pieces of candy and then just wanted to eat the rest.

Then the rest of the weekend we spent hanging out at the house that Michelle, Quentin, and Arlaine had all rented, so it was fun to have a place big enough for the kids to play and be themselves as well as the adults being able to visit with each other. Then church on Sunday, Sunday dinner, fun in the park in the evening, and then a ride from you know where to Branson!

I have vowed that I will never ever ever drive from Centerton to Branson again in my life! I'm not really sure why Shannon even does it? She must really love us!! First of all, Nick always likes to think that he knows a better way than the way other people try to tell him to go...so the way Shannon told him to go, he didn't go of course. He decided to go a different way thanks to the GPS's route. I've never been on a more windier, narrower route in my life! It took us on turns that made you feel like you were on a roller coaster. Then we also got to see my worst nightmare, a bridge that was under water, which was supposed to be our route, so we had to turn around and figure out how to calm my blood pressure down. Then the sort of normal route we found took us through Eureka Springs...I thought Missouri had some hicks...wow is all I need to say! I also got to learn what a "slide" is on a road. The road was actually crumbling beneath us down to a very steep cliff! Luckily we made it across! Then Nick swore to me that the rest of the route was going to be bigger roads, etc. Not so much. We continued on one lane, very narrow roads and even more sharp turns in the middle of no where, with no civilization in sight! Nick kept giving me scenarios of "What if our car breaks down or a tire goes flat, etc" What would you do, would you stay with the kids by yourself...it's pitch black by the way! My blood pressure has always been low naturally, but not this night, I felt it boiling! Then come to find out that Nick could have taken a route with much bigger roads from Eureka Springs but he decided to take the windier route just to get a rise out of me! I had to remind myself why I loved him, but this wasn't one of them!

We finally made it to Branson and hooked up with Ann and Jared who was waiting for us at the Condos. The condos air conditioning of course was not working and it was 10:30 at night so no one could come fix it. They tried to see if we wanted to switch rooms, but we had already gotten a lot of the kids down to sleep, so that was out of the question. It was a long and hot night, but we all made it.

The next morning we went to Silver Dollar City and eventually met up with everyone in Nick's family. All his siblings and his mom and dad were all there as well as Ann and Jared and their two kids. We were quite the show, especially when the adults wanted to ride the big kid rides. Only Mom, Shannon, Natalie, and Randy were left watching 11 kids, 4 of which were babies. They made us promise to never leave them alone with that many kids again! But no one got lost..that was a plus!

I honestly didn't take that many pictures only because there are only so many pictures of the kids on the rides you can have in a collection and Rex cries the whole time on any of them so I only took pictures of Rex enjoying himself like crazy in the ball room. He was in 7th heaven. He loves balls and this is an area that is filled with these soft cushiony balls you can throw and put into little guns to shoot places and there's this huge conveyor belt that takes them up to the top...it's a blast for kids as you can see from the pictures. I love some of his expressions!

On the right are the guns the girls were playing with. Notice Kayley who is shooting with one hand and holding her finger in her ear with the other..it's kind of a loud gun. She used to not get anywhere near these, so this is a huge step for her to be this close!

Rex was Nick's little buddy during the day, which was great for me! In fact during the time of the ball pit, Nick left and I kept Rex in the balls, which he loves and he cried like crazy for Dad and calmed down as soon as I took him out to Nick again. I was soaking that up like crazy!! He wiped out on the train!

And I almost can never get a picture of these four together with everyone looking and with everyone making a decent smiling face. I think I sort of suceeding while they were all strapped into the train! It was a great fun day!

Fashion Show, Graduates, and Tornadoes

Earlier this month Sarah and the girls came up for a visit and Kayley and Audrey realized they had the same PJ's and were absolutely thrilled. They probably have a lot more matching clothes than they realize as my big sister supplies both Sarah and I with a lot of girl clothes thanks to her two girls Caroline and Julia and like any mother, who wouldn't want to match their girls in outfits as much as possible? So now when we visit Audrey, Kayley has to have her Audrey PJ's. Cora and Lauren don't match but they wanted their picture taken together anyway.
While they were here, our Young Women had a great fashion show! The MiaMaid girls did the fashion show as one of their Personal Progress projects. It was great as so many girls participated. I struggled trying to figure out which category to enter as I didn't feel like I had anything nor could I make anything work for any category. So I entered the princess category and of course my girls and Audrey and Lauren wanted to participate. It was great!

Then we had Kayley's preschool graduation. I have to admit, I cried a little...never thought I was one of those mom's, but when Mrs. Porter started talking about Kayley going to kindergarten and growing so much this year, etc...I teared up a little bit. It was fun with all their songs they sang and the little presentation from Mrs. Porter. Then afterward we all got to share a cookie and lemonade with them. Cora was in heaven being at Kayley's school, (can you see her in the bottom right standing on the chair to get the best view?) she is still begging to go to school. Oh...and the boy next to Kayley is one of her best friends, Marshall...she talks about him all the time. There is only one other girl in her class this last year and they were polar opposites so she connected most with Marshall. He is going to Kindergarten next year, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the same school or not. Oh and what was cute about Kayley realizing she had graduated, she had also heard me talking to family on the phone earlier that week about Ashlyn graduating from her preschool program as well as Cassie having a graduation ceremony for her Associates program. Kayley then thought that we should get a graduation cake for all three to celebrate. I thought it was a great excuse to eat cake!

Then, one morning Rex was so tired that when I went in to wake him up, I was able to take two or three pictures of him sleeping, can you say he was tired!?!

He also now knows when I'm taking pictures so it's cute to see him strike a pose. This is him striking a pose while drinking his bottle.

Then two weeks ago we had a crazy Tuesday as we got some tornadoes coming through. Of course everyone was extra cautious with everything happening only a few days before with Joplin's tornado. So we spent the noon hour or so in the basement during the warnings. Nick even got evacuated to the interior hallway of the hospital for about an hour. The kids were in heaven as they just played downstairs with toys. Rex of course got to preview one of his birthday presents and I think he liked it! It was cute as Kayley kept wondering what the upstairs was going to look like when we went up. She and Cora had both watched some of the footage of everything that had happened in Joplin after their horrible tornado and they were expecting our house to be the same. When I told them it was time to go upstairs, Kayley yells down to me, "Mom it's all the same up here! Oh wait, I need to check my room!" She goes to check it and says, "Yep, it's all here!" Then I found Cora checking the pantry and saying, "Yep, it's all here!" Then she checks the fridge, "Yep, it's all here too!" It was cute to see them react to the tornado, I was just very grateful that everything was there and that we were spared any damage of course!