Cora Started School

One new thing that we've adjusted to is Cora starting school! Last year (actually last semester) she was in speech. She started speech in August and only going twice a week she was dismissed from speech at the beginning of December. It was very impressive how quickly she figured out how to correct her talking mistakes. She's one smart girl! So she is now a mentor in her class. She absolutely loves school. She has Mrs. Hall this year and loves her as a teacher. She talks all the time about all the things she does in school and all the friends she is making. It is a little bit stressful in the mornings now with both her and Kayley getting ready and taking them to school as Cora goes at 8 and Kayley doesn't go until 8:30. However, it's worth it because of all the things she is learning and all the fun she is having while at school. Here she is posing with her backpack on. She was ecstatic that she now gets to wear a backpack to school and I think she looks pretty darn cute!

Then of course Kayley wanted to pose with her. Kayley still loves school and is excited she can now share school stories with Cora.
Then here she is sitting down in line waiting to go to her classroom. It was really cute when I was taking her, you could tell she was nervous. She willingly received a blessing from her Daddy the night before and had so many questions before going to bed about school. Then the tradition that we have and continue to have now that Cora is in school is for the girls to say a prayer in the car on their way to school. She also willingly said her prayer that morning. Then I walked her into the building (in my PJ's by the way, all complete with my house shoes one - you can actually see my house shoe at the bottom of the picture! Yes, I really love her!) And then when she sat down, I took her picture then gave her a hug, I really thought she was going to choke me her hug was so tight. She didn't cry though and I was very proud of her for not crying! And of course when I dropped her off, she had a blast and wanted to go back the next day!

2011 New Year's Eve

This I think has been the first New Years Eve in about 3 years that Nick wasn't on call. However, I think I'd rather him be on call for that holiday than Christmas or Thanksgiving any year. So we were able to get together with the Walkers to celebrate. Michelle and I had debated constantly about if we keep our kids up to midnight or celebrate early. My girls love to watch the ball drop on TV, so we decided to celebrate at 11pm with the East Coast. Either way, the kids had a blast! We tried to incorporate every single tradition we could think of it seemed! Growing up I used to stay up till midnight and then go outside and bang pots and pans. I never watched the ball drop until I think I was in High School, but we do that tradition now with our kids. The other tradition that I've started with my kids is to drink the sparkling grape juice on new years. I wish I could drink that every day I love it so much and now Cora is the same as me! Michelle and Kendall bought a bunch of noise makers for the kids to use at midnight. And then Michelle and Nick growing up would blow up balloons and then their Aunt Lorraine would tie this special tie putting the balloons in a sheet and at midnight she would pull the string and the balloons would go flying to the ground and the tradition is that the kids pop the balloons....so can you see that our kids were a bit confused as to what tradition to do first because they all have to be done at midnight!! :) It was pretty comical watching us adults throw pots and pans to them, tell them to sound their noise makers, give them their special drinks, and then tell them to pop their balloons all at once! Then we blew the balloons up too small that they couldn't even pop them! In fact, I'm typing this post up at the end of January and two of our balloons are still blown up and laying around a house! Oh and did I also mention that this is all at 11pm so when they were banging pots and pans on the front porch yelling Happy New Years, Michelle's neighbors probably thought we were insane! It was lots of fun to be had for all!

Here are some pictures of them waiting to do all their traditions! Kayley wanted a picture of her throwing a balloon into the air!! She's so funny!

Oh...and did I mention I love these boys!?!?! I was able to get some cute pictures of the two of them! 2011 was a great year and brought lots of great things and new beginnings for us with our family, but we are very excited for 2012 and the other new things we get to experience together as a family!

Felker Get Together

Also during Christmas Break all my family (that is local anyway) met at my Mom's house for a visit. Sarah and I rode together as both Andrew and Nick had to work and weren't able to join us. It was great to let the kids ride together and help entertain each other during the drive since we just went for the day so it involved a lot of driving. But the cousins had a blast playing together. The weather was so nice (as it's been all winter) to where the kids were able to go outside and run around. Sarah got in the action of the freeze tag game. It's always fun to see the cousins get together.

Mom's Visit and my Christmas Present

So after Christmas this year, my Mom decided to come up to stay a night with us and then a night with Andrew and his family so she could play with the grandkids and see their new toys from Santa Claus. My kids had a blast playing with her! They loved showing her their new toys from Santa Claus and loved teaching Grandma Jani about how to play "Don't Eat Pete!" I also decided to take on a painting job while Mom was here to paint my laundry room. So it was great to have Mom there to play tag team with the kids while I painted during the day. As soon as Mom got to our house, the girls played "Don't Eat Pete" with her for at least an hour, if not longer. Since I was doing the laundry room, the kitchen table was a mess so they had to play the game on my bed so Rex wouldn't eat all the candy so it was hilarious hearing them play and get so excited to teach Jani how to play. Then I finally got the laundry room finished right before Nick got home from work, which meant I was wiped out and in no mood to cook dinner so we all went to eat at Pizza Hut. Kayley got to use a couple of her book-it pizzas, so the girls loved getting their own pizzas. Then the next day Jani got up and we took some pictures before she headed to the Felker's house. Here the kids are posing with some of their presents from Santa Claus, well the girls are..Rex is posing with his breakfast!

Then we tried to get a picture with Mom and a picture with the kids and myself, but Rex was not cooperating very well. And the one picture he did cooperate on, I forgot to turn the flash on!! Oh well...it was fun to have Mom over and let the kids have one on one time with her.
Then here is my Christmas present....right after Christmas my dryer went out. It happened before only about 2 months ago at most and Nick replaced the heating element, but that of course was a rather big job. Since it went out again we decided to try our luck in getting a new washer and dryer. We found this almost nearly new front load set on craigslist and it was actually the brand we had researched and everything. So I decided to decorate my laundry room. The closet was plain jane before with just white walls that were icky and needed to be painted anyway. I forgot to take a picture with the old washer and dryer in here, but imagine the old almond very old type of washer/dryer!
And my dreams come true...I never thought I'd own such a nice washer and dryer set!! Seriously!! I still love to do laundry and it's been over a month since we got them! The picture doesn't do the color justice in my opinion, but it's hard to get a good shot of it because it's in the closet. I just love it!

Jumping Jax

So Christmas break has probably been my favorite part of the school year so far! Don't get me wrong, Kayley loves school. She has a great teacher and she has a great group of kids in her class and she gets along really well with them. I seriously couldn't ask for a better kindergarten experience for her. However, I still would just love to have her home with me everyday! So during Christmas break I wanted to try and get together with as much family and friends as I could but also take it easy and just enjoy the time I had with Kayley at home from school. So Michelle and I had planned a playdate. Our original plan was to just play at our house, but Michelle called that morning with the idea of going to Overland Park and try out their Jumping Jax. Michelle of course had a coupon so of course we were game! We also got to ride together thanks to Michelle doing all the footwork of getting enough carseats in her van. I think that was the best part for the kids! So Jumping Jax is an indoor place with a bunch of large bouncy houses. They actually had a zipline thing from a clubhouse. It was really cute to watch the kids try it. Kayley and Ashlyn didn't want much to do with it but we were glad they at least tried it once. Kayley even tried it twice but both times she would just jump off the edge and fall to the mat instead of holding onto the bar. Cora on the other hand I had to remind her to let go of the bar when she was at the end of the zipline. She was cute and I was very impressed with her ability to do the whole thing!

Then of course had to get pictures of each of the kids going down the big slides! Garrett even ventured into some of the biggest ones...thanks to Michelle's help!! I was the picture taker so I didn't have to take Rex up the biggest one and I was very glad for that...it's a workout just to get yourself up there, it's tricky getting your feet to stay on the inflatable pegs to be used as steps and to hold onto the ropes at the same time all while trying to lift an 18 month up the steps too....not very fun! Needless to say I had to get a picture of Garrett on the huge slide because I knew that would be the only time he'd make it up there!
This is where we tried to keep Rex and Garrett as much as possible..in the small bouncy areas. However this was even difficult as a daycare also decided to come the same day. Let me say...some of those kids really tried my patience!! Poor little Rex and Garrett got bumped around a time or two by some older kids who really just had no awareness of them being smaller. In fact, one time I took Rex and Garrett by myself up a slide while Michelle took pictures and some kids were trying to pass me and the two boys while I was trying to get them up the aforementioned difficult ladder of the slide. I had to pretty much bump my booty in their face to get them to stop from cutting in front of me while I tried to get the two 18 month and 20 month boys up to the top! I was a bit peeved! Needless to say the kids had a blast and it's as always, fun to get together!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas this year was a little different as it fell on a Sunday and our ward met at 9am. I had this horrible vision that our kids would be irate that we had to leave the presents and go to church. However they were absolutely great! We had talked about the routine of Christmas morning and they were also concerned about the plan and when they were going to get to open their presents. So the plan was to have myself ready before the kids woke up so that when they woke up I could solely focus on getting them ready. I woke them up and had them close their eyes while moving from their room to our bathroom. They had to be fully ready for church before we could come out to see what Santa brought. Then of course one by one they headed out to see their presents. Rex was first and he was so cute this year to see all the presents. It was really cute to see him finally realize what happens on Christmas! But even though he loved the presents, his favorite part was of course all the candy! They each got to open 2 presents before we had to head to church. And they got to take their new toys to church with them, which they were excited about too. Then we headed to church just for Sacrament and then we finished opening all the presents. Once again I was really amazed at how patient my kids were with having the sacrament in between.

Here you see Kayley tell you every little detail about her presents. She has always been one to pay attention to detail. She got this Barbie case and that day she had specific Barbies and accessories that went into specific spots. Cora isn't into as much detailed stuff as Kayley but one thing she does like off and on is Bolt the Disney movie. She already has a stuffed Bolt she pulls out every now and then but Santa found her a Penny necklace as there's not a stuffed Penny anywhere. Here she is wearing it proudly! And notice that every picture Rex is in, he is either trying to open candy or already has candy in his mouth...seriously that was his favorite part of Christmas!
Then Christmas night we went to Michelle and Kendall's house to celebrate Christmas with them and Papa joined us to give the grandkids his present. Here Rex and Garrett are waiting for their turn to open their presents. All the older grandkids got a "Don't Eat Pete" game from Papa and their own container of candy, which was a huge hit!!
Overall it was a great Christmas and as I've mentioned before, I absolutely LOVE watching the kids enjoy their Christmas!! Seriously I usually don't want anything as a gift but to watch them enjoy their presents...it's the best present ever as a parent!

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. I'm reminded about how fun it is to have family live so close, especially during the holidays! We miss having the Carles as close as they used to be, but we are very lucky to have the Felkers close by now! We of course are still lucky to live nearby the Walkers too, but this year we got together with the Felkers for Christmas Eve. They came over to do cookies for Santa, eat goodies, and watch Christmas movies together. We had to limit the girls to make just one very special cookie for Santa Claus this year as last year Santa had a lot of cookies to eat and couldn't eat that many cookies this year since he gets cookies from everyone! Rex of course LOVED making cookies, or eating all the icing! Check out his fishy face! So cute!!

Then our family's tradition Christmas Eve is to hang each of your stockings up and be interviewed by typically Daddy, but this year they were interviewed by me! Hence why there isn't a picture of Kayley...Nick was in charge of the snapshots. Not sure if they just didn't record or if he was possibly occupied with Rex and couldn't get a picture of her. If you notice in Cora's picture, Rex is running to the back room where Kayley was waiting for her turn to hang hers. Rex was so cute and hamming it up to hang his.
This year Kayley brought some Oats home from school to leave for the reindeer. They put glitter in it so the Reindeer could see it from the sky and roof. So even though it was cold outside, they put the oats out for the reindeer before heading to bed. The purpose of the oats, other than feeding the reindeer was to give them something to do while Santa was filling our stockings and leaving presents. I think they were occupied as the oats were all gone when the girls woke up the next morning!
Usually Santa leaves the kids a handwritten note by his empty plate of cookies. This year Santa got creative and typed out individual letters with pictures for them to color. This first one is Kayley's...I tried to get a picture up close of the written part as the kids learned that Santa is pretty witty!!
Then Cora's letter.....
And lastly, Rex's letter....kept me cracking up all morning!
And the presents from Santa before the kids woke up to see them! The stockings had to be put on the floor because they were stuffed! Santa was really good to them this year. I have to say it is so fun as a parent to see my kids get so excited about the spirit of Santa Claus! What a treat!

Santa Train

This year was the first year that we did the Santa Train in town. I'm not really sure why we have not known or not gone to this event in the past! It was a lot of fun! Rex is really starting to get into trains and cars and anything boyish! So it was really fun to watch him get really excited about the "doo-doo" as he calls trains! We of course went with Michelle and Kendall so it was even more fun for the kids to spend it with the cousins. The lines were insanely long but they went reasonably fast! We also got free doughnuts, cookies, popcorn, and hot chocolate so it made it more bearable, especially since it was a cold night (not very common as it's been a very mild winter so far!) Nick sadly got to sit in line with us for a while and then had to leave to go to a doctor's appointment so he missed the actual train walkthrough. I guess it just means we for sure have to go again next year so he can join in on the fun!

One of our (mine and Michelle's) whole point of going to the Santa Train was for the kids to see Santa and get a picture on his lap. Every year the city of Grain Valley does the Santa Bus where Santa rides through neighborhoods and kids come out to sit on his lap and he gives them toys. This was the first year of living here that we missed that because we were out of town. The kids didn't get to visit much with Santa as it was "hurry smile, someone else is in line behind you!" But I got a good picture and the kids got to see Santa and they had already written letters to Santa previously.
Then lately our scripture study has consisted of watching the children's scripture videos. Rex gets really excited to watch them and it's really cute to see the girls learning so much about the stories in the scriptures.
I also got to go to Kayley's Christmas party at her class, which is always fun! It's so fun to see her interact with her classmates and she really enjoys me coming (at least for now!) I hope it always stays that way, but time will tell. I absolutely love coming and I love that Nick has a job that allows me to do so! Here she is making a gingerbread house! Rex was in 7th heaven when she brought this home because of all the candy!!

Christmas in Willard

Once again we were able to get all the Bell siblings and their families together for a celebration!! It amazes me how hard it is to get everyone's schedules to coordinate sometimes!! But that's old hat to me with my own family of coordinating 8 families! So the weekend before Christmas all of Nick's siblings got together at Mooma's house in Willard for our pre-Christmas celebration.

Most everyone got there Thursday night or met us Friday morning at Silver Dollar City. It was all of our last times to go this year as the year is coming to an end and no one was planning on getting season passes for this new year. Nick and I got there just in time to see the Frosty the Snowman outdoor show (It's a really cute show for the kids and this show and the Christmas Carol are always my favorites to see!) Every year the Frosty show has a part where the kids can come up to the stage and sing songs with Frosty. My girls NEVER want to go up! This year however, they actually went up (probably because their cousins were up there!) So Kayley is up in the top left picture sitting by Aunt Shannon and Addison. She's in the pink and red striped hat. Cora is in the bottom right in the purple and blue striped hat. Rex sat with Uncle Kyle for a bit and then later we joined Aunt Shannon as he was dying to get up on stage too! Then the light display is always fun to see, but it's always cuter to see the kids and their excitement! It was pretty chilly when the sun went down, but it wasn't as cold as it has been in the past!

Then Saturday morning we got up and all went out to breakfast (a tradition that was started about 4 years ago I believe)...it's the idea of stuffing our faces with breakfast food that gets us all going in the morning!! This year we decided to extend it to include some extended family and it was so great to catch up with some of them! I sadly didn't get a picture of everyone that was there, but Lorraine, Mike, Sarah and her kids were there. Kenny & Sharon, Eric and Sarah and their boys were also there. Then all of us, minus Shannon and her crew, but they joined us later for the rest of the weekend celebration. It was fun and thank goodness Hemingways (inside Bass Pro...another bonus for some of the Dads!) has a big seating area for all of us and a great, cheap breakfast buffet!! It was a lot of fun! Then afterwards we took the kids to the Santa Workshop display at Bass Pro. The line for Santa Claus was horrendous so we just had the kids ride the carousel and then do the craft.
Then the most anticipated part of the trip for the kids....the present exchange!! Each year we have the kids exchange names and then Grandma also gets them each a gift. You would think they were waiting for a truckload of toys by their excitement! But my girls were very excited about their gifts! Rex also enjoyed getting presents. He finally gets it this year about what's included under the wrapping!

And these two boys were so cute to watch. Rex and Garrett are the closest in age as Bell cousins and it shows. We are always seeing them exchange tricks, taking toys aways from each other, and running around together to put on a show for everyone! And of course they are always loving on each other too!! Altogether it is so fun for me to see my kids have such a great relationship with all of their cousins, on both sides of the family! I have such fond memories of my cousins as a kid and I'm so glad that we live close to a lot of our family, on both sides, so we can have frequent get togethers like this so my kids can develop strong ties with "their friends" as they call them!

Christmas is Here at the Bell House

It is officially Christmas at our house! Well, I guess it has been for a while now. I put out my decorations early this year only because we were going to be gone over Thanksgiving weekend and usually that's when I put up decorations. But I waited until after Thanksgiving to put up our tree, which we did the Monday we got home! The kids absolutely love putting up the tree. See every year when I was growing up my 2nd cousin, Carrie would each kid in my family a couple of ornaments. Now I have all my ornaments from when I grew up and she continues to send my kids their ornaments every year. They get so excited to open them up and see what ornaments they got. So when we put up the tree we all get to go down memory lane with all or ornaments. Here are the kids after putting up the tree. Rex has surprisingly done very well with keeping the tree alone this year. I only have to get onto him every now and then. And the girls wanted to do a silly faced picture so you can see that below! Some crazy girls!

Then last week was Lauren's birthday party. She absolutely LOVES Wizard of Oz so she obviously had a Wizard of Oz party. The kids had a blast and we just love the fact that Andrew and Sarah live so close to us now! It's so fun to have family nearby, especially family that has kids almost exactly the same age as our kids (which we haven't planned this, but I'm almost thinking we should coordinate as to when we have our next kid so we can keep the tradition going!) :) So here the kids are playing musical yellow brick road (like musical chairs). They played this for at least 20 minutes if not longer, they had a blast with it!
And no party Sarah plans isn't complete without a piñata! She usually makes hers, but had to do a store bought one this time around. We've determined she makes more durable ones than the store bought one! But the kids still had fun even though it was sprinkling very cold rain on them!

And here's the cake Sarah made...pretty impressive huh!?! She amazes me!! And here's a cute picture I got of my Rex! He's just growing way too fast, but I just love this boy! He's starting to introduce me into being a boy lately as he's figuring out how to climb onto things. However, I still find him playing with his sisters, in fact tonight he was brushing one of their Barbie's hair...I think he needs a brother!! (No announcements here!!) But he is such a sweet boy and I just love him so much!
Rex and Cora are alike in a lot of ways, but one thing they are alike in is their immediate love of baby dolls. I try not to think of it being a girlie thing that Rex likes babies, but that he is going to be a very sweet and loving father and husband someday because of it! So we found him in the baby's bed the other day and had to take a picture of it. And it came out a bit blurry but the girls wanted to do a picture with them kissing his cheeks...they really are kissable and I can never kiss them enough!!This year was our first year doing a Gingerbread house. I always think about doing one but never want to pay 10-15 for a kit and let's face it, I'm not going to make my own!! But I found this kit at Aldi's for 6 or 7 bucks and couldn't resist. The kids loved doing it! And Grandpa Bell even got to come and do it with us! Rex liked testing the candy for us of course! It passed the test! It was fun and I'm sure going to be a continual tradition!
And then today we got Carrie's package of the new ornaments for this year. The girls were so excited! They both got a Barbie ornament, which they LOVE!! And two of Rex's were Mickey Mouse ones...which he really loves now! So we took some pictures of them after they put their ornaments on the tree. And the Rex and Cora had some fun in their Santa hats looking for Santa in the chimney. He's not here yet, but we are ready for him! Kayley has been counting down with her new calendar she bought the other day from the dollar spot. We hope everyone else is as excited about Christmas as we are at this house. The other day I realized that these years are the most precious in regards to Christmas!! I really do just love watching their excitement with everything for Christmas....goodies, movies, crafts, songs, activities, the countdown, and then Christmas morning! I can't wait!!