Knickles, etc

So I'm sitting at the kitchen table tonight across from Cora. I had my hand shaped in a fist and my face was leaning on my fist. Cora says to me, "Mom I can see your knickles." I asked her to repeat what she said and she said "I can see your knickles." She meant my knuckles. She is so cute and so funny with her words sometimes! Today she was very much into telling me the things she could do when she gets older. Some highlights to her were as follows: jump on her bed, have a tv in her room, drive me around in my car (I even asked her how old she had to be to do this and she told me 16, I asked her how she knew that and she said Kayley told her!) She said some other things that aren't coming to mind right now, but she sure is funny!

We made Monkey bread tonight for FHE and Kayley was watching them in the oven as they baked and said, "Oh I see why this is called monkey bread, because the rolls look like monkeys when they get big like that." Then in the opening prayer of FHE she blessed the banana things in the oven (monkey bread).

Rex has officially started moving forward in his crawling. I found him tonight pulling himself forward in a type of army crawl. He only did it a few times, but it was cute! I also have to get a picture of how his teeth are coming in...his two front teeth look really cute! I'll hopefully get that tomorrow and post it! Four teeth and this boy still refuses to eat baby food! I guess he's just waiting for the rest of his teeth to come in so he can eat the real stuff!

The House That Built Me...and more....

So here is what our family has been up to the last month or so...

Cora got her first official haircut. A couple of months ago I tried to do her first haircut myself...didn't get any pictures of that time as I was busy trying to bathe three kids at once and trim her hair, it was probably a good thing as I did a horrible job! So thanks to my friend Jenn who does a great job at cutting hair she looks much better now with a cute short hair haircut. She loved it even though she was really scared to do it at first.
Then we have had all this snow in the last month..tons of snow days, which I'm not going to lie, have been nice! Kayley has liked them too, but I'm sure we'll say differently when our summer gets delayed making them up. Nick got out in the snow with them one night and helped them make a snowman and do some sledding on our makeshift sled/shovel. They had a blast and we even made a little slide from all the snow from the snow plow. They had a blast!

Then we headed for a massive trip filled with lots of fun times! We went first to Sikeston to stay the night with the Sanders. The girls had a blast with them, especially with Caroline and Julia. They also had fun finding out how much Andrew loves Toy Story....they didn't know someone loved it as much as they did till they played with him. Notice Jesse and Woody make it into almost all four of these pictures.

Then Saturday morning one of my best friends Jami came up from Memphis and we met at Bo's for breakfast with her husband so she could meet Rex. It was great catching up and I guess we didn't realize how much our husbands had in common! It was a fun catch up!

Then later in the day we went to go visit Aunt Tootie and Cousin Carrie. We took Einstein with us for this trip so he could meet Liberty and Carrie could see him. I think Einstein probably wished he could have stayed there as he was treated like royalty there! Aunt Tootie and Carrie had not met Rex yet, so it was great to get to see them and as always it was a great visit!

Then we got to go through the house I grew up in, which was very surreal! The people who live there now were good friends with my mom and dad and I used to babysit their kids when I was younger, so we knew them and they were more than willing to let us walk through their house, which I was VERY grateful for! Pretty much everything had changed cosmetically with the house, but it was still great to go through everywhere and put a place with the memories and stories I had told Nick and the girls. Throughout the whole time I felt like singing Miranda Lambert's song, "The House that Built Me." There were so many memories in that house and it was such a blessing to be able to relive all of them with my family now. The next day during church Kayley was drawing pictures of each part of my house and I was surprised at what she remembered. I had a picture of me when I lost my first tooth in front of my fireplace that I gave Kayley to comfort her when she lost her first tooth earlier this year. So I took the girls picture in front of the fireplace for them to have a picture of themselves in front of the same place.

Them together...

Then separate....Kayley wanted her own since she has lost her first tooth and now has a picture like mine.

Then the handprints by the pool. They aren't my handprints as I wasn't born yet or either was too small (don't know when the cement was laid for sure), but they are still there, very faded, but still under the slide. The girls handprints fit perfectly in some of the handprints.

Then we of course stopped by the graveside of Dad, Kathryn, Grandma and Grandpa...but it was freezing outside so I only got video of it and didn't get any pictures.

Then we headed to Farmington for the rest of the weekend to attend baby Lucy's blessing on Sunday. It was great fun to get together with all the family (minus Mary and Jessica and their families, whom we missed greatly!) There was lots of play time with all the cousins!

Playtime with Daddy! Rex just loves Daddy! It's cute because I know the girls loved Nick, but not nearly as much as Rex...he just adores him!

More fun with cousins. We got some of the babies together born this year, minus Emme (who was already asleep and Audryn, who wasn't there). Poor Ruby, Rex could not stop digging in her ears! Andrew below was so excited about his new boots and had to get a picture!

More fun with cousins...it seemed like the front room couch was the target for rough play! Someone was always underneath all the cushions with all the other kids on top...and everyone just loved it!

Then we celebrated Valentine's Day...Rex's first one! The girls woke up to their valentine treat from Daddy, Toy Story chocolates! They were so excited!! Kayley had a blast going to school that day for her Valentine's Day Party and brought home lots of treats and goodies and willingly shared with Cora.

Then we went to Toddler Town with Ashlyn, Preston, & Alexa. The kids had a blast playing with each other and it had been forever since they had seen Ashlyn & Preston too. Rex just loved the blocks, we could barely take him away from it!

Rex has a tooth!

So on this last Sunday during church I was trying to get Rex to sleep before Young Women started and I noticed that he had his first tooth...and not just poking through, completely cut through and somehow I missed it coming through! He hasn't been acting fussy or sleeping less or anything out of the ordinary. So I can only think that he is just a really good baby! And really he is. He is a great sleeper for both naptime and bedtime. All I have to do is wrap him up, and cuddle with him for a bit and then even when he's awake, I'll lay him down and he'll put himself to sleep. Now he does get a bit fussy during the cuddle/rocking time, but I'll take that if he still puts himself to sleep. He rarely wakes up in the night now, so he sleeps a good solid 8-9 hours a night. He's almost always happy, although he is just starting to get a little separation anxiety from me, but I think some of that might have to stem from him possibly cutting his second tooth? I don't know.

He is going to be 7 months in less than a week and I can't believe he is already this big and old. He is eating almost all vegetables now in solids and is doing farely well with them. I have a feeling though that he will really like his fruits when we start those. I started giving him a little bit of water the other day in his sippie and he thought that was pretty fun! He's rolling all over the place and sitting up very well. While on his tummy he'll lift himself up on his arms and then move around in a circle on his belly while trying to reach for toys, sometimes even scooting himself backwards. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time that he'll be crawling! Where has my little baby gone?!?! One of his favorite things to do now is to watch Einstein. Einstein's way of playing is to run back and forth in the same path and Rex just giggles away watching him. I'll also take Rex and act like we are getting Einstein and it just gets him rolling. I'm going to try to get it on video soon and I'll have to upload it for all to see.

He got his 6 month pictures taken the other day and he did GREAT! It was a struggle to get his hand out of his mouth...probably due to his tooth coming in that I had no idea was there! But I think it makes the picture extra cute with his hand there. He's still so chunky to me...but I love it! He really is a very happy baby and I couldn't have asked for a better baby. I was hesitant with having a third baby, but if I had known for sure that the third one would have been like him, I wouldn't have been scared at all. We really have been blessed with such wonderful children, they really are all three good kids now and were/are all good babies too. I feel very blessed and would be lost without them.

My Little Man

I can't get over the fact that Rex is already 6 1/2 months old. Time has just flown by WAY too quickly! He is now eating green beans, a little begrudgingly I might add and still rice cereal. He's rolling around everywhere and when on his stomach he pushes himself up and moves himself around by his hands. I've seen him try to get his legs up in the crawling postion, but he hasn't gotten them there yet. He can now sit up without assistance for a little bit at a time...it took him a while to accomplish this, probably because of how big he is!! At his 6 month appointment he weighed 17 lbs 11 oz...which was about 3 weeks ago. So he probably weighs more now. He is such a sweet baby, very content and happy almost all the time, unless he's hungry or tired. He's a great sleeper, sleeping 8 to 9 hours a night on average and a great napper too. He loves watching Einstein and the girls play...he could watch them for hours.

And here he is in his cutest outfit ever (in my opinion!) He looks just like a little man, so handsome! This was the first Sunday a couple weeks ago that I had him wear this shirt/tie combo...it's actually a 12 month, so it's a good thing I pulled it out, I'm afraid if I had waited until he was 12 months old he would have been too big. As I was getting him dressed he had his shirt on without his tie and Kayley said (without knowing there was a tie), "Mom if he had a tie on with this shirt he would look so cute"...then I put on his tie and she was very pleased and couldn't stop talking about how cute he was all day. Well, you tell me, isn't he just the cutest!?!?!
More cuteness....

Cora had to get in on the cuteness. She's even cute with her candy cane in her mouth.

And I just can't get enough of Rex's blue eyes. This picture doesn't do the moment justice. He was looking out the window while we were eating and they were just so blue.

December Festivities

Ok...just prepare for a lot of pictures as I haven't blogged in a while and we've had a lot going on with the holidays!


To start the month of December, we got to go to Baby Ruby's blessing. It was a great time visiting with my side of the family as well as Brother and Sister Neuffer. Ruby is so cute and SO much smaller than Rex!! It always amazes me how quickly they grow and how quickly you forget how small they are to begin with! The girls love to play "camping" with Rex and he is usually a good sport about it.

Our 1st snow...well I don't know if I'd call it a snow. It only snowed about 1 inch at the most, but the girls couldn't wait to go out and play in it and make snow angels and throw snow balls together. And Cora even lasted a long time playing out there as opposed to in the past only playing for at most a couple of minutes. Rex and I enjoyed the warm temperatures inside together!

Rex looked so cute in his Santa hat...and of course Cora wanted to play along. I would have gotten Kayley in the pic too, but she was at school.

I got to go to Kayley's school Christmas party. The teachers always talk about her being so quiet and good and listening very well. They were absolutely correct! I was so impressed with how she behaved, although I knew she wouldn't misbehave. I enjoyed being able to watch her interact with her friends at school.

Then the Bell family Christmas get together was the weekend before Christmas. Here are some pics of the girls at the Bass Pro Santa's Workshop. They loved the slide and it reminded me of "A Christmas Story" without a mean elf shoving them down the slide.

Then all the boys got out their guns and had some fun shooting up stuff and shooting skeet. John had a little too much fun sporting Cassie's pink ear muff protectors.

The best part of the weekend was watching all the cousins playing together. Kayley absolutely loved playing with Addison. She kept saying how cute she was...she really did take to her and would help Addison with every little thing she could, it was cute.

Rex loved his toy from the cousin gift swap...I don't know if he liked the box or the toy more, either way it was cute watching him enjoy his Christmas gifts! He was also a good sport in wearing his Santa suit as it was a bit snug on him as he's quite a bit bigger than the girls were when they wore this even though they were all about the same age. And his cheeks are always red and rosy, so they fit right in with his Santa suit!

Kayley & Cora also loved their gifts from the cousin swap. Kayley got her Rapunzel dress and Cora got her Woody doll with a Woody blanket. Probably their favorite part was getting their gift from Grandma. Grandma's original gifts fell through so last minute she took them to the store and let them pick out a gift. They had a blast doing that. Cora even said "this is the best day ever!" She loves going to stores and she loves her Grandma.

Then I had to take our family pictures when we were all dressed up in our Sunday best...aren't we cute?!

Then on the way home we stopped at Kenny & Sharon's house. Kenny let the kids ride his tractor and they were all ecstatic. Kayley, Ashlyn, & Preston got to ride the tractor, but Cora got to ride the Rhino all terrain vehicle with Daddy. Now if you notice, there is not much protection in this vehicle and Nick said it was even scary for him at times riding around in it. Cora came back and said "I saw all the cows and I did not even freak out!" Nick said the Longhorns that were on his land at the time got pretty close and she would grab onto him for dear life and just laugh it off to show she wasn't scared. I wish I could have seen it.

Then MayMay came to visit. The girls had a blast playing with her and making lots of Christmas goodies with her. Here's a picture of Cora making pancakes one morning with her...they were yummy too by the way!

We also took Mary to the Kansas City Temple Site. I hadn't been there in a while and it's coming along quite quickly. They each got a jar of dirt. When the St. Louis Temple was being built, my Dad brought back a jar of dirt for Mary and she told him she was going to get married in that dirt...she did get married in that dirt almost 3 years ago now. So the girls now have their jars of dirt on their dresser for them to look forward to getting married in the dirt too someday! So here's a picture of them in front of the temple with their jars of dirt.

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning. The girls got everything they wanted on their list and are now compiling their list for next year...silly girls!

Kayley got a little bit more than she wanted for Christmas thanks to Daddy. They were having a dance party and Nick was holding Kayley and went to toss her on the couch and her knee hit her mouth and her tooth got knocked out. It was pretty traumatic for her, but she survived. Here's a picture of her a few minutes afterward.

Here's just a cute picture of the kids with Nick.

Then we got to have a playdate with Kaelyn and Anderson. They had so much fun playing with each other. We met at Chick-fil-a hoping to do their storytime only to find out it wasn't going on because of Christmas break. So we played for a while in the play place and then it was so nice outside that we got to go to the park. It was great fun to have them catch up with each other.

Then on New Year's Eve Rex got to try Rice Cereal for the first time. He did pretty well and the girls had a blast trying to feed him. It's Cora's dream...a real life baby to feed!! She's been having a blast

2010 was a great year with lots of new excitement for our family, especially with the addition of our sweet Rex. We hope that 2011 will be just as fun and exciting!!

Cora-isms

Here are a few sayings of Cora...she has been saying some of the funniest things lately and I wanted to record them before I forget.

1. A couple of nights ago we were watching Home Alone 2 and the part where the parents are filing the police report with the policeman about Kevin missing Cora asks, "Mommy are they being 'copped'?" (Being arrested)

2. The other day I was getting her cereal in the morning and she says to me, "Mommy if I eat all this cereal I will have a humongous diet!" I guess meaning if she eats all of it she would be really full.

3. Earlier today at one of my friends house today she notices their icicle lights on their house and says, "Mommy they have the same glass lights like us!" glass = icicle

4. Earlier tonight Nick was teasing with her before bed and giving her kisses and she says, "Stop Daddy you're making me eat your 'statue'" Statue = Mustache

5. Then a sweet one that happened tonight....Kayley and Cora were icing some leftover cookies from Young Women and Cora asked Kayley to pass her the icing. Kayley gave it to her and Cora said, "Kayley you're so sweet to me." Kayley responds, "Cora you are so cute!" Just made my day!!

6. Another funny one she said a long time ago that I just want recorded. She was playing with her toys and starting saying "stupid" during her play. I told her, "Cora we don't say stupid in this house." She responded with "Can I say it outside of the house?"

It just seems that she keeps saying all these funny things all the time now!! But no matter what this girl says and does, she is so stinkin' cute! I just love her so much!

More Santa Claus Pictures

Well here are the pictures of Santa Claus that the elves of Santa actually took. After all was said and done I felt really sorry for Santa and Mrs. Claus as it was a really nice day outside and I'm sure he was quite hot in his suit. Makes it nice for the kids going to see him, but not for him.

Here's one of Rex...who didn't stop looking at me. I also didn't get a picture of him freaking out when getting his toy from Santa...it was cute though. Luckily now that he's seen it for a few days, he is actually liking it now.

And here's the girls remembering to give Santa a hug goodbye and telling him what they want. As a parent I love these moments...seeing the belief of Santa Claus come to life!

Let the Holidays Begin....

We have started to have lots of fun already with the holidays. I always get so sad when summer gets over, but then I remember how fun we have with the holidays, especially with my kids. I just love how excited they get to enjoy the holidays. Kayley remembered seeing a picture of her and Cora when Cora was Rex's age with their heads together and in opposite direction. She immediately wanted to take a picture of her and Cora and Rex altogether like that. Rex had fun, for a while and then got a little impatient as he kept thinking I was picking him up when in reality I was standing over him trying to get him to smile. We have also already been to Bass Pro to see Santa Claus. Bass Pro always has such a great Christmas display with crafts and Santa and games....and our favorite part is that it's always free! So a couple of weeks ago, I stood in line with the girls for at least 30-45 min while Nick shopped a bit and then took turns standing in line. There was a really nice lady who was behind me and kept my place in line while the girls and I stepped out to do the craft instead of us loosing our place in line. It is always refreshing to be around someone nice like that! The girls loved seeing Santa...no one cried, except Rex, but he has reason to. They got really excited telling him what they wanted for Christmas. It's always cute to see them believe.
Then Thanksgiving was last week. Kayley was so cute because a couple of weeks ago we talked about how Thanksgiving was coming up. Kayley said, "Thanksgiving is when we get to eat Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy...it's the best meal ever!" And that is exactly what she ate...Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and nothing else! Cora on the other hand just ate the turkey...she loves meat! We went to Michelle and Kendall's house for dinner on Thursday with Kendall's parents and Patsy made the Turkey and kept the Turkey legs for the kids to play/eat with. My girls absolutely loved them!! Cora couldn't get enough of it! We had to take some pictures of them devouring it!

And of course, it was Rex's first Thankgiving...although he wasn't able to eat anything he enjoyed watching us! I tried to get him to smile for his "first Thanksgiving" picture, but he kept giving me this funky grin...still cute none the less. He's getting so big and almost 5 months old now. And the bottom right is of Kayley, Ashlyn, Cora, & Preston cuddling up on the bean bag for Diary of a Wimpy Kid or "Diarrhea Wimpy Kid" as it sounds when Cora says it. We watched this with the Walkers after dinner...it was our second time watching it...it's hilarious!! The girls love it except for a scary story the older brother tells his younger brother on Halloween night. Part of the story is of these kids who get killed because an oven gets left on in a house and catches the house on fire. It is a pretty scary story when you think about it. But earlier that day I was baking stuff for our dinner and I guess I had left the oven light on. So when we came home the girls sad there was a monster in our house (because the oven light was on, they associated that with the oven being on that killed the people in the scary story)...We had to reassure them many times there were no such thing as monsters. They are smart!

And every year Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus come to our house. Rex got to join in on the fun this year. However, the toy Santa gave Rex actually scares him. We are noticing more and more how sensitive this little boy is. One of Kayley's Jesse dolls scares him like crazy and now this dog toy from Santa Claus does too. Oh well. The girls absolutely loved seeing Santa at their house. They watched him come and go visit the other neighbors too. It's always a fun day when Santa comes!

And this past weekend we also got our Christmas decorations up. The girls were SO excited to decorate this year. They always are, but Kayley couldn't get enough of it and has asked everyday for the past month when we get to put up our tree. We sadly had to do some switching around with our tree lights as half of our lights from last year stopped working, but we finally made it work tonight and have all our ornaments and decorations up except the outside lights which Nick has to still put up. Kayley was cute because she insisted on everyone having Santa hats on, even Rex, and she kept telling Nick when to take pictures. I'll have to post a picture later of the finished product...although it's not anything amazing...however it's amazing to see how elated the girls are with the finished product! So let the holiday season begin in the Bell household!!

Portraits, New Cousin, and Cute Pics...

So, I've hit a milestone already this month as this is my second post for this month! I forgot to add the kids portraits they had done in October in my last post, so I'm putting them in and decided to post other stuff too. Here is Rex's 3 month picture. He is now 4 months and getting SO BIG! We went to his 4 month appointment last week and he already weighs 15 lbs. 15 oz!! Here's a comparison to my girls at 4 months with Rex:

Kayley: Cora: Rex:
12 lbs 8 oz (50%) 10lb 10 oz (15%) 15 lbs 15 oz (61%)
24 in (50%) 23 1/2 (50-55%) 25 3/4 (72%)

So, he is my biggest baby yet, but I guess I'm glad it's him and not the girls since he is a boy! As mentioned on an earlier post he can roll over and he is getting so close now to rolling over back to tummy. He smiles at anyone who smiles back at him and is such a happy baby! He has a great interest in watching us eat now, so I'm not sure if he'll make it another two months before we start solids with him! And as his weight shows, he still eats like a horse!!
Here's Cora's 3 year portrait. She is my little trickster, inquisitive girl! She asks me about things all the time. The other day, she asked me what police do. I told her they help take care of people...that wasn't a good enough answer cause she then asked me what it means to take care of people. Another thing she does is pay attention to detail in what you say. A while back she was saying 'stupid' when she was playing. I told her we don't say that word in this house. She then asked me if she could say it outside of the house. Then a couple of months ago we went to St. Louis to go to the Temple, see extended family, and do some other fun family stuff with just our little family. We stayed in the hotel for two nights and the girls loved it and begged to go constantly after that to stay in another hotel. Cora would ask why we couldn't go to a hotel and I would tell her that hotels cost too many moneys for us to go all the time. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we went to St. Louis again to attend the Temple and we went and stayed in a hotel. When I told Cora we were staying in a hotel, she asked me if hotels were free now? She sure is cute!

Here's Kayley's 5 year portrait. Too often than not it is very difficult to think that Kayley is already 5 and going to preschool!! Kayley loves school! She has already had two boys give her things to take home. One day she came home with a handful of flowers that were picked from weeds from a boy. Then later that week she came home with a pine cone that she said one of the other boys in her class gave her. She also loves to play dress up and pretend a lot. She probably changes 5 times a day because as soon as she wakes up, she puts on dress up, then she has to get dressed for school. Then as soon as she gets home from school she is getting other dress up clothes on up until we're ready to get PJ's on for the night. She is trying to learn how to read, and I think she is slowly getting it. We are doing some reading lessons and she is constantly asking me what letters spell what. I know she is just SO close and the breakthrough will come anytime now!

As mentioned earlier, a couple of weeks ago we went to St. Louis. On the way we stopped to see our new niece Ruby Ellen in Columbia. She is SOOO cute!! I just couldn't get over how tiny and sweet she was! They just grow so fast it's hard to believe that Rex was close to that size (he was bigger), but it was weird to see how big he is now and how tiny Ruby was. The girls just loved getting to hold her and Kayley said that Lauren would be really glad her name was Ruby because it was like Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers. (Lauren and Kayley are BIG fans of Dorothy and she just loves that they share that in common with each other!) Cora continued to ask me after seeing Ruby and even before, "Mommy when are you going to have a baby girl in your tummy?" Not for a while Cora!! :)

More pics of cute Ruby...

Here are the pictures from the hotel. The girls just love that they get to share a bed with one another. THey also loved being able to swim in the hotel (but what kid doesn't love that!?) I personally LOVED the hot tub...it was huge!! We didn't get to swim that long though since we had stopped to see baby Ruby. But the girls had a blast swimming and then coming back to the room and taking a bath and then playing restaurant with the ice bucket and cups. The next day we got up and took our time getting ready then headed to the temple. I was able to do a session and then I came out only to find out that Nick had a fever. He was going to try to do a session since we had traveled 4 hours and it had been a while since we had gone...but he went in and was barely able to do initiatories...so we just did that and headed home. A couple of days later Nick went to the doctor and found out that not only did he have strep throat, but he had scarlet fever as well. Pretty crazy, but luckily no one else got it!

Here are some pics of Rex just being cute. It is getting easier to get him to smile in pics, but it's still a struggle because he gets caught off guard with the flash of the camera. But there are a few smiles in here. My fav pic though is the one on the bottom left..."what are you doing to me Mom!?!"

The same day I was trying to clean up stuff while Kayley was in school and Cora was already down for a nap. He wasn't quite ready for a nap until later, but ended up falling asleep on the floor while I was cleaning. Silly boy.

Nick was playing with Rex the other night with his hat. He looks awful cute. Rex has his own hats, but I think he looks the cutest in Daddy's!!