August Events

These past few months have been a whirlwind of months and will continue to be as we are in the middle of a move from our current house into temporary housing and then eventually into our new house.  But we try to still have fun and enjoy life!  Here is what we enjoyed for the month of August!

Cora turned 5 years old.  It's really hard to believe how big our kids are getting.  August is always a very emotional month for me because both the girls are getting one more year older and they are both starting school.  Cora had a great birthday and of course we can't imagine our family without our cute and spunky Cora!  She is a great helper in the house.  She is almost always willing to share with her siblings and she is very helpful to others around her.  She soaks up learning information and what makes me proudest is she soaks up learning about the Gospel.  She starts preschool this year but would go to kindergarten in a heartbeat if her birthday was just one day sooner!  However, I'm glad she is the oldest in her class...it will mean one year longer with us at home before she grows up and goes away to college. 

 Ashlyn had her first dance recital.  It was great weather, not too hot, not too cold.  She was so cute dancing and you could tell she knew what she was doing.  My kids loved to watch her perform!

 One of the last trips to World's of Fun for the summer before school started!  The kids actually wanted to take a picture with Snoopy and Woodstock.  In the past all the kids were a little bit hesitant to snap a pic with them, this time Garrett was the only one with hesitation.  Even Rex let Snoopy put his arms around him!

 Nick and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary.  I feel very blessed to be married to Nick.  He is a great Dad, an amazing husband and a I couldn't have asked for a better fit for me.  We celebrated by going downtown to eat.  Then another day this month I came into the living room and to my horror and worry (I thought they would break the curtains, seeing as we were moving in less than a month!) But I couldn't resist snapping a shot of them being cute and silly behind the curtains.  I love it when they all three play together without fighting.

 Kayley started 1st grade this year!  I can't believe she is already in 1st Grade!  Kayley absolutely loves school.  She has a great teacher this year once again....we have been super blessed with all the girls teachers!  Kayley's reading is just sky-rocketing this year.  She is getting into reading chapter books and learning some fun math skills.  She even says Math is her favorite subject other than reading.  (girl after my own heart with having a love of math!)  We are so proud of how well she does in school.

 Cora started preschool this year.  She went for half of the year last year and her birthday is one day after the cut-off so she got to go to preschool for one more year.  She has the same preschool teacher as last year and loves her class.  She has a lot of the same kids in her class as last year and she is the best helper in her class.  She also loves school.  In fact, almost everyday I have to countdown for her when she gets to go to school.  Some mornings are very long to her with having to wait until 12:15 to go!

 Kayley turned 7 this year....7!!!  I still can't get over the fact that this time next year we will be having her baptism.  She is so mature for her age but still a kid.  She is a great big sister to her brother and even to her sister.  I can rely on her for so many things.  She and her sister have a great relationship and even though they bicker at times, what sisters don't bicker?  I often have to constantly tell them to go to sleep as they will often stay awake visiting with each other.  She is very much looking forward to having a new baby brother or sister.  One of her favorite things to do is feel my tummy when the baby is moving!

 Other things that occurred this month...I hit my 15 week mark and officially announced our pregnancy.  We are very excited for our new addition and are planning on making this baby a surprise, which I'm very excited about as I've always wondered what it would be like to have a surprise baby!  Rex had another haircut...I always think he looks so handsome after his haircuts even though he always cries throughout the whole process!  The girls have enjoyed matching each other this month.  I love to match them and love that they still love to match each other!  And one day I caught Rex sneaking in some leapster time while the girls weren't looking.

 One of the games my kids have learned from their Grandpa Bell is how to play "don't eat pete."  The girls have taught Rex how to play it and I found him playing it all by himself the other day while the girls were at school...it was so cute!  And Rex and Cora get some quality time with each other while Cora is waiting to go to school.  I found them hanging out watching shows on the ipad together.  Kayley's teacher is great at taking pictures of everyone throughout the day and sending them to us.  I love feeling connected to what Kayley is doing during school.  And last but not least, Cora went to the dentist this month and I was very proud of her for not being scared.  She was like the best patient ever and let them do whatever they needed to do without complaining one bit.

 And we took some random pictures one night when we ate dinner with the Walkers and Randy to celebrate someone's birthday in August!  Here's Rex, Preston, Ashlyn, & Kayley

 Here's Kayley and Cora

 And Rex and Garrett...they had fun taking pictures together.

July Events

July has come and gone but I'm actually posting on time!!  Here's what our family has done for July...

Ashlyn had her 6th birthday party at her pool.  I was the designated camera person...one thing that is so nice having family pretty much at every one of our kids parties...you can give someone else the camera while you focus on the rest of the party. Here are the pool games.  There were a lot of kids there but they all played well together. 

More party pictures.  And since it's my blog I can put lots of pics of my kids on it!  There were so many kids there that many seats had to be shared, one being between Rex and Cora.

Told you there were a lot of kids.  I can't remember for sure but I think some kids had already left at this point?  Plus Preston and Garrett hadn't made it yet as they were napping and came later to the party.

Caught a cute moment with my kids.  Cora was willingly letting Rex tackle her and it was really cute.  Pic is taken with my iPhone, so it's not the best quality. 

Our sweet new nephew Dylan Thomas Carle was born on July 11th.  7/11 birthday...such a fun birthday date to have I think!  We can't wait to meet him in person and I'm sure he is already double this size by now.  We are planning a trip out to Idaho either in August or October and we can't wait to snuggle on this sweet baby boy!  He is such a blessing for everyone, but especially for the Carle family. 

My friend Jami and her husband Tim came through Kansas City on their way to Nebraska where they were moving. We got to meet sweet baby Mallory.  As an earlier post with baby McKinley stated, Kayley couldn't get enough of Mallory either.  Both girls loved holding and loving on her.  We all of course love to visit with Jami and Tim but now it's even more fun with Mallory! 

We were doing some shopping at Macy's this month and in the girls section Rex found this hat and decided to wear it all over the store.  He actually wore it for quite a while.  A little bling, bling doesn't hurt anyone right? 

These girls prepared to have their combined swimming birthday party.  I'm so glad that they still enjoy having their party together...makes for a very less stressed Mommy!  Plus they have a lot of the same friends so if we did separate parties we would just be inviting the same people over and over.  Aren't they cute? 

And here are pictures from their swimming party...thanks to Jessica.  The last two parties the girls have had she has very willingly taken over my camera duties and it has been such a relief.  Lots of swimming fun!

More swimming fun...lots of cousins and friends came to help make their celebration so special!

The pool games.  So remember the pool games from Ashlyn's party?  Well, I repeated the same game because it was a very stressful week with lots of home stuff going on so it was just easier to repeat the same game instead of come up with my own, especially since Michelle already had all the stuff!  My kids and her kids didn't even notice, or if they did, they didn't say anything!  Win win situation!!

Told you lots of friends and cousins came!  I think I counted 19 total including my kids but 21 if you count the two cute babies that also got to attend!  Another reason why I love having the party at the pool...there is no way we could have this many people in our house!! :)

Another thing to lessen the stress of the party was I let Grandma be in charge of manning the girls in decorating their cupcakes.  I usually get stressed in thinking they need to look a certain way in order for everyone to eat them.  However the girls absolutely loved being able to decorate all the cupcakes and they of course loved to decorate their own cupcakes how they wanted them.  They couldn't decide on a mutual theme so they each picked out what cupcake toppers they wanted.  Kayley picked Barbie and Cora picked Hello Kitty.  However I think they put both toppers on their individual cupcakes anyway!  Silly girls!  And this day was super stressful as we got an offer on our house so we spent pretty much the whole afternoon at our realtor's office signing paperwork and didn't get home until an hour before the party started!  A big thank you to Mooma because without her help in watching the kids we wouldn't have been able to pull it off and get ready in time!  But because of this, I forgot matches for their candles!  So on the bottom are pictures of the girls pretending to blow out their candles.  So funny!  But I figured if that's the only thing I forgot, I did pretty well with remembering everything else!

It overall turned out to be a great party!  I think the girls had a blast playing with their friends and of course loved all their presents...so they couldn't have asked for a better party!  As for me, I got the party out of the way in time so I lower my stress level with having it being too close to starting school, which raises my anxiety levels anyway!  Win win situation again for all of us!  And who doesn't think these kids are cute?!!?  I know we do!!

Sikeston Trip

So at the end of June/beginning of July we went down to Sikeston for Judson's funeral.  We hate getting together with family for things like this but it is also nice to be able to visit with everyone as well and of course be a strength to one another during such a difficult time.  The time went by way too quickly and even my kids hated to leave.  

Here we are swimming at Cary and Katrina's pool...they so graciously let all of us Felkers bombard and I mean bombard their house and let them use their pool.  We are just very glad they had just recently gotten it working!  It was the best way to entertain all the houligan kids of ours!  

 There were a number of times the cousins wanted to do some synchronized type activities in the pool.  Here's some of Olivia (left), Elizabeth (middle), and Caroline (right) flipping their hair.  Olympic material?  Maybe so...just not sure what category!

 And this was another fun synchronized event...jumping in at the same time.  However this time was hilarious because Edward decided to fool everyone and NOT jump in with them.  He was pretty proud of himself at the end as you can see by the bottom right picture.  And notice how I also got a great couple of shots of Andrew throwing Sterling into the pool.  Not planned but great capture!  Love his face!!

 And this sweet boy had his actual 2nd birthday while we were there.  We weren't planning on doing any big celebration as we were there to just visit and be with family and we had also done a birthday celebration the week before.  However, Jan's sweet neighbor Peggy Bird insisted on giving Rex a birthday cake.  What a treat and a sweet gesture of her and of course it was great to have some cake to share with all the family.  Rex also loved playing with Cary and Katrina's very sweet and tolerable cats.  In fact one cat let the cousins keep throwing him into the pool water.  We had to put a stop to it, although it was pretty hilarious!

 Then after Judson's funeral and burial service we all came back to the church for a meal provided by so many sacrificing and generous people.  We took advantage of all the cousins being dressed in their Sunday best (minus Kathryn and Judson).  However, with 24 kids it's impossible to get them to all look at the camera and then to smile!  So we took what we got!

 The whole week was spent with great time just spent having fun with cousins.  Top left...Rex's buddy, Uncle Jud.  A year ago when the Carles came to visit Rex really took to JT even though he had never met him until then.  It wasn't quite an attraction this time, but he still loved and adored him.  And the bottom pictures are of when we went with the Carles to eat some Houchin's donuts...yummy!

 Then when we were getting ready to leave for home the girls wanted some pictures of Olivia, but it turned into a bunch of pictures with all of their cousins.  Oh....and I told you Rex took to JT still while we were there...bottom left is of JT being the only one to calm him down during one of his random fits he had while we were there.  Nick had already gone home because of work and I couldn't get him to calm down for anything so JT took him and of course he instantly calmed down...told you they had to have been buddies before this life.

 More pictures of cousins...I love that they are so close and love each other so much even though most of us live so far away from each other.

 More cousin pictures...such love in each picture!  We really had a great time spending so much time with family but again really hated it was for the reason it was.  What a great reunion it will be when we ALL get to be together again someday!

June Events

Another month has come and gone in the Bell household.  Here is what we did...

Our newest Bell cousin was born back in May so in June we got to go meet her and attend her blessing.  McKinley is such a cute little girl and my kids absolutely loved being able to love and snuggle on her...even Rex!!  He loved her so much and definitely got his baby fix in.  Surprisingly this time around Kayley was the one that wanted to hold McKinley more than Cora.  Typically it is Cora who can't take her hands or eyes off of a new baby.  Kayley really just loved holding McKinley and got upset when her turn was over. 

  Cousin fun....anytime we have a family get together on either side...I just love that my kids love and get so excited to play with their cousins!  I love that they are all such good friends with one another.  My girls always refer to any of their cousins as their "friends", not their cousins.

 Part of the cousin fun involved swimming at Kyle's parent's neighborhood pool.  The cousins loved being able to swim with each other and show each other their tricks.  And of course we had to take advantage of the cousins having matching suits so Ashlyn, Cora, Alexa, and Kayley all wore their matching suits and of course they had to take a picture and include cute little Addison!

 Who can't love on this beautiful new little cousin of ours!?!?  Isn't she just so cute!?  She seems to be a very well-natured baby and of course was just a doll in her blessing outfit!  Isn't this a good looking family?!?

 And we also bought Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun season passes this year.  Our family has a tradition of buying season passes every other year to Silver Dollar City.  Every off year, us and the Walkers always debate buying WOF/OOF passes because it is so close.  This year we finally broke down and bought them.  And luckily we did this year because next year Kayley will be tall enough to be considered full price!  Yikes!!  So here are some pictures of our first time at Worlds of Fun.  The train was of course the highlight for Rex and Garrett...these boys both absolutely love everything there is about trains!  It was cute watching their faces.

 Rex and Garrett were also old enough to ride a lot of the rides with the bigger kids.  It was really cute watching them stand in line with their older siblings and to see their excitement as they rode the rides.  The older kids were such big helpers too.

 More fun on rides!

  Rex and Garrett were so cute on these boats.  It was almost time for the park to close so they were the only ones who were riding at the time and they kept taking turns trying to ring the bell.

 We joined the Walkers for one of Liberty's Nursery's fun day activity.  Each of the kids got to plant a plant and we all got yummy slushies.  Preston and Cora with their plants.  Sadly the plants didn't survive long, especially because of all the heat we've been having.

 Ashlyn and Kayley with their plants.  Notice that all four of them have their matching name shirts that they made a long time ago together.  After this event we went to dinner and to the drive inn movie so we had our kids ready in their PJ's for the late night and they had to all match!

 And the drive-inn....it's not summer unless you go to the drive-inn!  Michelle and Kendall put their giant bean bag in the back of their van and the kids had a blast watching the movie and snacking on popcorn and pop together.  Garrett had a little too much fun with the glow sticks...one popped open in his mouth so we had to get a picture before we cleaned him off!

 This year for Father's Day we surprised Nick with breakfast in bed which consisted of a bacon bouquet of flowers!  He thought it was the cutest idea.  When we were picking out the fake flowers at the store, both Kayley and Cora said, why are you getting those for Daddy, he didn't get any for you?  I then told them what I was going to do with the bacon in making them be the flowers and Kayley said, "Mom that is a really good idea, you are good!"  The kids did a video about questions about Dad and had fun making it and showing it to him.  Then that night we went to Michelle and Kendall's house to do father's day with Randy.  We did a game on how well do you know your Dad/child.  The kids and adults had a blast testing their knowledge of each other.

 Then the next day after Father's day we found out some really saddening news.  Our nephew Judson had an accident.  He was experimenting with what is called "the choking game".  He was by himself and got caught up, literally, became unconscious and was put into ICU for a week.  Long story short, he passed away on the 24th of June because his brain was showing no brain activity.  So the rest of the month of June was spent with family surrounding us whether here at home or in Sikeston.  We will miss Judson but we know he is in a better place and we know that families are forever and that we will be with Judson again someday when we all pass away.  What a special blessing it is to know this.  It doesn't take the hurt away but it helps to understand it.  Judson was loved dearly by all.  He was my buddy when he was younger.  He proposed to me when he was about 2 and Nick had to ask his permission to marry me.  My girls absolutely adored Judson when they lived close to us in Blue Springs.  He definitely had a gift of making everyone around him feel special and we witnessed this often when he played with my girls.  The girls now have many printed pictures of him in their family photo books and Kayley even has a locket with his picture in it that she wears almost everyday now.  He will be deeply missed.  Words cannot express our loss.  We love you Judson and can't wait to see you again!

 Our Rex turned 2 this month.  Since we were going to be out of town for his actual birthday, we had a birthday party for him before we left a week before his actual birthday.  He got lots of Thomas the Train items...told you he likes trains!  He loved his Thomas cake, only because it had a Thomas on it that he eagerly pulled off the second we let him.

 The party was lots of fun and he of course had lots of helpers to help him open his presents and blow out his candles!

Kansas City Zoo Fun

We went to the zoo with Michelle and her kids and the kids had a blast!  I loved watching the Sea Lion show.  The Sea Lion got in trouble because he kept eating the fish out of his lunch box.  Rex really loved the sea lions...he couldn't take his eyes off of them.

Then we didn't actually get any pictures of the kangaroos, but these are pictures in front of the kangaroos.  I just couldn't believe they weren't caged up.  The kangaroos just wandered the park, but surprisingly stayed right by each other and didn't come close to people at all.

 Then we pet the goats.  Rex didn't really know what to think and barely would touch them.  Garrett liked touching them though.

 Then Nikita the polar bear.  She was so cute and SO BIG!  It was amazing to see her up close.  She swam the same route the whole time and the kids loved being able to try and match their hands with her huge paws on the glass.

 The birds were hilarious!  The kids shared the nectar cups and did a great job being brave and letting the birds eat out of their hands.  Rex even let them come and land on him!

 Rex and Garrett were so cute watching them.  When Rex was feeding them, Garrett was so intrigued.  However when it came time for Garrett to feed the birds, he didn't want anything to do with them!

 Then Michelle and her kids decided to head home.  I knew and had heard that the Africa section was something you did in a day and you couldn't see the whole zoo in a day.  However Kayley was dying to see the giraffes so being a good mom I decided to brave Africa at least to the giraffes!  Little did I know that the giraffes were in the dead center of Africa, which makes a loop.  So I ended up having to walk all of Africa anyway.  To say we were exhausted at the end of it was an understatement!  Rex was even falling asleep in his stroller but I had to keep waking him up so he'd sleep when we got home because I knew I needed a nap!  It was fun though and the kids had a blast!  Kayley was very appreciative that we got to see the giraffes!

Then later in the week we went to the Celebration at the Station for the Memorial Day Celebration.  This was our third year going I think and the kids had a blast like always!  They got to play with their cousins and friends and eat lots of snacks, including pop!  It was cute to watch them all play together.  They didn't freak out too much when the fireworks started but Rex was cute because he was sitting with Nick who was holding his hands over Rex's ears and Rex had his hands on Nick's hands to make sure he wouldn't take his hands off.  I didn't want to blind them with my flash because it was dark so I didn't get a picture but it was really cute!