Andrew's Graduation and other pics

Over a week ago we got to go to Columbia/Jeff City to see lots of my family and celebrate Andrew's Law School Graduation. It was a quick weekend as we left Saturday and headed home on Sunday, but it's always nice to get anytime with family, especially family you don't get to see very often and new family members like this cute Baby Emme below...Cora could not get enough of her, which I fully expected! We got a few cute pics of her smiling too! She is just so cute, it made me so excited to see our baby soon!
Then Sunday was a very busy day starting with Stake Conference for the Columbia Stake. The Stake Presidency was being restructured as President Reall has recently been called to be a member of the area seventy, so we were privileged to be there when Elder Richard G. Scott was there to call the new Stake Presidency. It was such a sweet experience to hear from him, the new and old Stake Presidency. Then afterward we ate a quick lunch and headed straight to Jesse Hall to watch Andrew graduate. We were so proud of him and his accomplishment! Although I'm sure we weren't as excited as Sarah was!! The kids had a great time playing with cousins and spending time together, I just wish we had more time to play with them all. All the Felker siblings and their respective families were there except Mary and Jess and their families. We missed them dearly and look forward to when we all get to get together again!

I've also tacked on a few other pictures I had on my camera. Nick was shooting at the shooting range at Bass Pro the other day so the girls and I decided to do a small photo shoot while they watched the fish and ducks waiting for Daddy to get finished. I think they turned out pretty good and of course, my girls are my girls so they have my blood in them and they have to do silly face pictures! Nick swears it is in our blood to do silly pics as all my nieces and nephews on my side are this way and it's often difficult to get a good pic of everyone smiling and no one making silly faces! I guess it makes it more candid that way!

Here's their normal pics (or semi-normal with Cora's cheesy grin!)

Here's their silly pic again as well as another pic from me testing out my new camera. They are growing way too fast and I know time will fly even faster when this baby gets here! I just love my kids so much!

More Garrett & Rainy Day Fun

We had a great time celebrating Mother's Day a day early with everyone being here to meet Baby Garrett. Mom Bell was still here so we gave her the gift for her. The boys cooked and cleaned (although Quentin conveniently left before the clean-up!) for dinner. We had ribs, pasta salad (that was yummy since Nick made that part!), potato salad, baked beans (one of my favs!), and yummy cheesecake...we were lucky to be sent home with leftovers from this, Nick's clock is ticking on him eating his share before I tear into it...I've been battling not eating it ALL DAY!
Then of course all day we took turns holding Garrett...or should I say holding Garrett with Cora's help. She couldn't get enough of him and whoever was holding him, she had to be right by him. In fact, Natalie asked her if she thought Kayley would want a turn and Cora replied with a "no, I don't think she would want a turn." Then when Natalie asked Cora if I could have a turn, Cora said, "I can hold him with you." She just adores him so much!

Then yesterday was my mother's day. We didn't do a whole lot being on a Sunday, but Nick did lots helping with the girls/cleaning/cooking/everything to where I pretty much got to relax all day! It was nice to have such a relaxing day. We are so lucky to have such a great husband/father that is such a loving provider for us all! Evidently Cora wore herself out and made herself a bed before bedtime and just fell asleep! It was cute.

Then today it's been rainy all day. So what more fun to have than to make a fort, have a picnic in the fort, and then have a dance party! Now this momma wasn't dancing with the extra belly, but the girls had a great time and they played so nicely with each other. It turned out to be not such a boring day with all the rain! Now to think of activities for the rest of the week as it's supposed to rain all week!!

Meeting Baby Walker

Yesterday our newest nephew was born. He came in at a mear 7 lbs 7. oz and 18 in. long....which is a really small Walker baby! He did have to come c-section, but all ended up going well thankfully! He is as healthy as can be and Mommy is doing well when we went to go visit her. The girls talked about holding him all day, Cora especially couldn't wait! In fact, once we found out it was a boy, her baby that she carries with her everywhere (which is usually named Baby Alexa) is now referred to as a baby boy! We are excited that they had a boy so that our boy can have a cousin so close in age to him and we are also lucky that they are so close in proximity too only living 30 min away from us! Here are the pics we got of him, we did have to wait patiently to hold him since as soon as we got there the nurse swept him away to be under the heated lamp for a bit...but it was worth the wait as you can see from the pictures since he's awfully cute! Cora didn't want to stop holding him! Can you tell how excited she will be to have a new baby in the house soon!?!

I did get a few holds in too, but Kayley really impressed me with how well she held the baby. She's getting to be such a big girl and I think she will be a big help when our baby arrives. The current question of the day from both girls has been, "Mommy, when is your baby coming out of your tummy!?" They can't wait...neither can we!

Oh This Boy...

Well, I went for my 30 week check-up today. I got another ultrasound to check if the placenta had moved on it's own...it had thankfully, but we traded it for another problem! Apparently there is too much amniotic fluid (which was rather a bit calming to me as now that explains why I feel so HUGE! I knew it wasn't just me being paranoid of gaining weight! But it also calmed me a bit that I wasn't having this huge baby either!) So, with what little information I've been given so far, apparently that means that if the fluid continues to rise it could possibly put me into early labor. I'll go for early, just not too early to where he is unhealthy! So immediately after my doctor's appointment I actually had to be admitted to the hospital to have a non-stress test done to make sure all the neurological aspects of the baby were running smoothly. So I trekked over with the girls (who were great through it all by the way!) and got hooked up to the monitors. It's also nice that Nick works there so he just popped in for a bit to see how we were doing! The nurse verified that we have quite the mover in there, which I already knew and which also explains why he moves so much...because he can with all the extra fluid! But everything came out normal. However, apparently I have to have these twice a week now according to my doctor and have another ultrasound, but a more detailed ultrasound (how detailed can you get!?!) So I have to do the extra ultrasound sometime next week and I'm still figuring out all the details with the multiple non-stress tests! This boy better be cute is all I'm saying all this stuff he's already putting us through!! I know it will be worth it when he comes out, but it's a bit stressful for now! Oh well!

Here's some pics they sent home with us from our ultrasound today. He's still a boy as you can see from the bottom right picture (see caption of "all boy"). Kayley also kept saying how big his head was, that apparently freaked her out about how big it was! Oh and she also asked if the baby was living in my whole body today while at the doctor. That question came after I tried to describe to her what the stirr-ups were when she asked me about those. I guess the way I described what the stirr-ups were made her think that the baby was also in my legs! Funny girl!

Homemade Ice Cream

A couple of weeks ago we were watching some cartoons on PBS and in between some shows they put on a few craft ideas. This time they put on how to make homemade ice cream with just 2 ziploc bags and within 5 minutes. I was skeptical as I know how long it takes for our electric homemade ice cream machine to make ice cream, but I told the girls we would try it someday. Well, they have good memories and definitely do not let me forget! Once I figured out how to print it off (part of the procrastination was that it was so dang hard to find on their website!) But today after we got home from the doctor and before naptime, we did it and it did literally take no more than 5-10 min. It probably wouldn't have taken as long, but I had to keep reminding the girls that they were the ones in charge of shaking the bag, not me! It turned out pretty good I thought. Here's a pic of them enjoying it! I didn't get any pics of the process, but I will include the recipe below! Enjoy!
Ok...for some reason my copy and pasting won't work in the blog, so here's the link for the recipe! www.kcptkids.org/letter_pages/activities/I_Zip-Loc_Bag_Ice_Cream.pdf

A Mini Spa Day

This last Saturday was Michelle's neighborhood garage sale among many other neighborhood garage sales in Liberty, so we made a trip up to check them out. We got a few good things, which is always nice! But we also got to visit with Grandma! Grandma came up for the weekend because Michelle was going to be induced the following Monday (pictures of that will follow later!) So she just made a weekend of it and came up early. I had planned on stepping out of my box for a bit and giving Michelle a pedicure/foot massage since she was getting ready to have her baby. Apparently one of her friends had already set it up for them to go get one together, so I gave Grandma one instead. The girls were enthralled watching me do Grandma's feet. Then I painted Gma's toes and they wanted theirs painted too...so Gma lined them up on the couch and did them all at the same time! Sadly on Sunday it was a bit chillier so they both had Sunday shoes with socks on, so they couldn't sport their newly painted toes, but that didn't stop them from sporting their newly painted fingernails! Everyone they talked to, they mentioned that their Gma had painted their fingernails. Who'd thunk a little bit of paint would go a long way! Oh...and notice that Kayley was very specific on getting paint on every bit of the nail (shown in the bottom left she is pointing out a spot that Grandma missed!) It was a fun day!

28 weeks

Wow! I can't believe I'm already at 28 weeks! I guess that means I'm officially in the third trimester...crazy!! There are times when I can't wait to be finished being pregnant and then other times where I am just fine with this little guy cooking just a little bit longer! I've actually been feeling pretty good lately. Some pains I've had in the past that have plagued me all day/everday have subsided and only seem to come back every now and then, I assume maybe just when he's growing lots?!? Also a good thing, my headaches have started to subside some. I still have them, but lately they haven't been everyday like before. I think last week I only had 3-4! I still feel huge!! I think part of it is because I've forgotten what it feels like to be pregnant maybe? I have an appointment in 2 weeks for another ultrasound to check if my placenta previa has corrected itself...I'm still kind of nervous about that as if it hasn't it increases my odds of having a c-section (one of my biggest fears of labor/delivery), but I'm trying not to stress about it too much. I'm sure it will be fine whatever the case! I also had to take my sugar test twice (luckily only the hour one twice!) reason being because the lab messed up my results somehow....grr!! I'm just glad I didn't have to do the tolerance test that's 4 hours long and you have to drink 4 of those nasty drinks, plus you have to do it fasting! I had to do that with Kayley and it was awful! One of my favorite things now is that for some reason Kayley constantly says, "Mommy, you're pretty!" Just what a pregnant momma needs to hear!

It still amazes me what your body is capable of when pregnant and what such a privilege it is for me to be able to have this experience, even amongst all the aches/pains! I'm very grateful to my Heavenly Father for all the blessings I have with being a parent and having this experience! I know my family is only mine if I do what He wants me to do in raising them correctly! I'm glad that Heavenly Father has trusted me with caring for my sweet children!

This picture was actually taken by Kayley...I think she did a pretty good job! One of their favorite things to do lately is to take pictures with my old camera. Someday I'll have to post them to show off their camera skills! I actually let them take one picture of me with my new camera, but that is now off limits so it doesn't get broken!!

Our Girls

Well, I was all excited about these matching dresses for the girls for Easter because I found them on sale and they had Kayley's size in them, which is getting harder to find Kayley's size in something that matches Cora! However, since General Conference was on Easter Sunday, we didn't get to wear them until later. Anyway, here are the pictures from their matching dresses debut. They had to do some cheesy/funny faces as well as the usual cute ones. Now I just have to find a cute little boy outfit that matches these dresses and then when our little boy is born, we can get pictures of all three of them!
Here'a a random picture of the girls trying on hats at Bass Pro while we were waiting (patiently, I might add) for Daddy to finish up at the shooting range. Cora refused to wear the racoon hat, so she opted to just wear her hat from home that they had both brought in. Have I mentioned that I love our girls!?!

A funny thing they did yesterday, we were on our way to church we saw one of the Blue Springs water towers. One of their favorite things to do is to figure out whose water tower is whose...this particular one has always been Olivia's and Katrina's water tower because it's by their house (old house now)...so yesterday Cora got excited about seeing Olivia's water tower and I had to sadly remind them that they didn't live over there anymore. Kayley responded that they should take the water tower down and move it to where Olivia lived now so that Olivia can have water where she lives now. I told them they have water towers by where they live now and would have plenty of water. It's still taking a while for it to sink in that the Carles live so far away now..for all of us!

Three Little Pigs

I forgot to post this video a while back. A couple of weeks ago our ward had a Primary Talent Show. It was lots of fun to see all the kids do their talents and let us learn a little bit more about each of them! Have I mentioned that I love my calling as Primary Pianist!! Anyway, Cora was the only one that wanted to participate. She wanted to tell the story of the Three Little Pigs. We practiced for it quite a bit and she was doing great practicing at it! My favorite part is when she acts as the big bad wolf and blows the piggies houses down! However, when we got up there, she chickened out and I was the one that told the story. Oh well, I was just impressed that she had the courage to get up there. Kayley didn't want to do anything, a stark difference compared to last year's talent show when she sang a Taylor Swift song. Oh well, maybe next year both of them will want to do something!

Again, don't forget to pause the music.

Cora & Kayley Dancing

This is a video of Cora's new kind of dancing. It's so cute cause she puts her hands on her hips and kind of does a twist thing. I'll let you be the judge of her cuteness. It's kind of hard to see at first because we forgot to turn on the light until Kayley came in and she tries to dance with Cora too.

Don't forget to push pause on my music below so you can here them!