And him sitting on his favorite spot on the couch! Isn't he cute!?!
And he got it, but doesn't know what to do with it. all while Audryn is trying to take away his phone!
And then the funniest thing was Rex is very clingy to Nick and I and when it comes to new people, he's usually really shy and clings to us even more. But when it came to JT, he went right to him! Here he is playing with him. I couldn't figure out if maybe Rex thought JT was Andrew who had been living with us for almost a year or not. Either way, it was really cute seeing how he took to him so quickly!
Rex debuted his new PJ's from his big cousins, Sterling & Andrew. He looked so cute in his spider man PJ's!
And then dress-up. Olivia brought out some wigs of the girls for Audryn and Rex to wear! Audryn was a pretty good sport and smiled pretty for us!
It was pulling teeth to get it on Rex! He's all boy remember!! He got very offended with us putting it on him and started crying!
And who did he go to to be consoled? JT!! It was so cute and sweet!!
And Olivia had to model the Rapunzel wig. We decided she makes a better brunette than a blonde!
And sorry to post this JT, but you were the one that posed for the picture! He also makes a better brunette!
And it was really cute because Kayley and Cora waited all day for Olivia to come play with them and Olivia was wanting to visit with us grown-ups. But eventually she did go in and play/coached the girls in dress-up. They had a blast! They played dress-up pretty much all the time after that until they left! Here they are having a tea party on the top bunk!
Cora, Katrina, and Kayley waiting for Olivia to bring them their tea party food!
And three very wiped out kiddos! They all slept on the bottom bunk together and Olivia slept on the top! They were all in 7th heaven! After they left, Kayley kept telling me she wished the Carles lived by us again and they both want to invite Olivia and Katrina to their upcoming birthday party, but don't quite understand that they will be miles away again back in Idaho! We all wish they lived closer again...maybe someday sooner than later! It was definitely a lot of fun to have them over and to visit with them!
Then a few weeks ago Shannon and Addison got to play with us for a few days while Uncle John had to work. We went to Liberty for Ashlyn's 5th Birthday Party (my camera died on me during taking pictures, so I don't have any of that.) But afterward we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead and boy was it hot! We also didn't realize that we got there at 4:15 and they closed at 5! So we went through quickly, trying to dodge all the workers who kept trying to already scoot us out the door! Here is Kayley feeding the fish. She really liked to try to feed them and saw a few turtles in the water too.
Cora got in on the action too as well as Ashlyn and Preston. Addison did a little bit, but mainly watched the bigger cousins feed them.
Posing on the bench together. I know I'm a horrible Mom for not taking Rex out of his stroller to sit with everyone, but I knew once I took him out he would be really upset to go back in and unlike Garrett, he's not walking yet and I wasn't about to lug that boy around in that heat! He's heavy and it was blasted hot!
And Kayley and Addison are almost joint at the hip when they are around each other. It's really cute to see Kayley reach out and help Addison in whatever she needs almost without asking and it's also really cute to watch Addison and how much she looks up to Kayley. Kayley can pretty much get her to do anything!
Rex was mesmerized by all the animals. We would get near one and he wouldn't take his eyes off of them...as seen in this picture!
This is all of them waiting to go in (sorry I uploaded them backwards this time!) We actually got them all to hold hands very willingly at first!
And this is what Rex has been doing lately. He's learned how to get up and down from the fireplace by himself. It's really cute. This day he got up there and just kept kicking his feet like he was king of the fireplace! He also does this on the couch now. One of his favorite things to do is to sit on the couch by me or by the girls while we are watching tv and he'll just start giggling at the tv like crazy and look at the girls or us and then giggle again at the tv. It's really cute!
And of course, we had to go to Chick-fil-a's Cow Appreciation Day! Free food...this family is there! I had us all in white shirts (including Nick, but he refused to let me take his picture, but he did dress up, including the cow ears!) We each had ears, noses (that didn't stay on very well), cow-tails, spots, and our "eat more chikin" signs. And we each got to pick out our own value meal and the girls got their own happy meals and Rex got his very own 3 piece of chicken strips! It was fun and the funny part was to see how Kayley was starting to notice that this was a bit embarrassing as she told me she didn't want to wear the nose or the tail. She didn't complain once she knew she'd get a happy meal though!
And me with the girls and Rex. He sure was a cute "eat more chikin" sign!
And earlier the same day we had gone to the pool to swim and Rex was just too cute trying to eat my peach! I just want to squish him he's so cute...don't you!?!
Here they are before the race...
And after the race enjoying their popsicles. Rex was in 7th heaven and devoured his! We even got one since there weren't that many people participating! 
Then on the 4th itself, Rex got to have a second birthday party, thanks to Ashlyn's birthday celebration and the fact that Grandma Bell and Michelle were out of town for his actual birthday party. Can you see Kayley's face in this picture? As soon as she saw Ashlyn's cake, she told Michelle, "wow! you have to teach my Mom how to do that for my birthday party!" Michelle had bought a sheet of icing off of Ebay with personalization on it and a picture of Rapunzel. Both Kayley and Cora want a Rapunzel party and agreed to have it together...so I think I'm going to have to re-create this cake for them!
And since Michelle wasn't at Rex's original party, we had to get pictures in the birthday crown and shirt he borrowed from Garrett. Isn't he cute!??! And of course he knew exactly what to do with the cake this time around when he blew the candles out. So much that when it came to opening presents, he didn't want to wait to eat his cake. So I had to keep giving him some licks of icing to tide him over till he got to eat his own cake. 
And then we let him eat his own cake again so Grandma Bell could see him get all cute and messy. He definitely enjoyed it and literally devoured all the cake so much that he lifted his plate when he was done to look under it to see if there was anymore cake. It was fun!
Then we ate dinner and headed out to William Jewel college for the 4th of July festivities there. They had bounce houses and fireworks. The kids had a blast being together. They even got to sit in an ambulance.
The first bounce house was a single slide and the kids did great getting up to the top and sliding down it. So much that Kayley and Preston almost went at the same time!
Then the biggest one was one that we knew our kids weren't going to make it through on their own. Luckily one of Michelle's friends' brother and sister were both there. I was going to go in with all four, but they volunteered to go through with them. As you can see from the bottom right picture, Cora slipped on one of the small slide parts and apparently got jarred a little bit, but made it through without crying. It was fun!
Then we waited for the fireworks show. We forgot Nick's hunting earmuffs this year, so the fireworks were really loud for the girls, but they survived! This is why I don't have any pictures of them watching fireworks or of the fireworks themselves and I was using both hands to shield Kayley's ears, which were sitting on top of Kayley's hands also shielding her ears. Rex of course loved the fireworks! It was a fun 4th of July!
Then we met some friends from our library storytime group to do some tie-dying for 4th of July. The kids have fun playing and Rex was very good staying in his stroller the whole time while we tie-dyed...have I said he's a great baby!?!? It was blasted hot, but we got them finished. They turned out looking pretty cute, but after a few washes they have faded quite a bit. But the girls loved being able to match Rex with their shirts! This is them lining up on the slide oldest to youngest, except Rex...I don't think they could have held one more kid!
Then the rest of the day was pretty crazy! I watched Sarah and Andrew's kids while Sarah went to the Dentist. Andrew was supposed to get home early to help with his kids, but ended up home really, really late. It was fine during naptime with Rex and Ruby asleep, but when they woke up it was kinda crazy because Ruby wasn't very used to me. Nick wasn't going to be home early as he had a meeting at St. Luke's and someone (ehem, Nick) got scheduling wrong and ended up being on call for both St. Luke's and Centerpoint at the same time! When he went to his meeting at St. Lukes, he had to finish a test before he got to come home. And then to make things worse or more gut-wrenching, he told me that they had let a tech go that day in the Nuclear Medicine department. Luckily it wasn't Nick, but it was pretty stressful thinking it could have been. We feel very blessed that he was spared and I know I'm very blessed to be married to such a hard worker! So, the party was supposed to start at 6pm and Sarah didn't get home till 5:45 or so and Nick and Andrew weren't even home by then. Luckily Mom showed up early to help me with the kids and the cooking and the cleaning and the baking! Thank you to Mom!! Either way, it was a fun party celebrating a very cute and sweet boy! Here are the pictures from the event!
These are pictures of him playing with some of his toys he got. He loves balls and loves to put things into things....well, his presents were just as such and he loved everyone of them! It was really cute seeing him get so excited about all of his presents!
More presents and more playing with friends. His friend Anderson is only 2 months older than him and they were having a blast playing with each other. A lot of these pictures were taken after he already ate his cake which is why he's naked. A big thanks to my friend Jessica who took over taking pictures for me! We have the same camera so she knows how to work it and it was such a relief to know the pictures were taken care of!!
The big kids had a blast playing together and enjoyed sitting at the kids table both inside and outside!
And THE CAKE....it didn't take him long to figure out what to do with the cake. He demolished it! Jessica felt bad in not getting a before picture, but you can pretty much see what it looks like in this picture...a baseball.
See...as you can see, he demolished it! Well, it was a really successful party, even amongst all the stresses. And Nick and Andrew did in fact make it finally to the party, about 1 1/2 hours late, but they made it!
Here is "Father"
And I couldn't get "Father's" to fit altogether so I had to put the " s" with "Day" here....And the apostrophe (who is Rex) was an accident that worked out great! This was one of his fussy times and I was trying to get the girls to do a good "s" and he kept trying to get me on my bed, so I just added him into the picture and made him the apostrophe!
And here's our finished product on our mantle. The girls were so excited to show Daddy. We were supposed to put it up while he was at his meetings before church and then it would be a surprise to him after he got home, but of course his meetings were cancelled because of Father's Day so we had to have him close his eyes while we put it up on the mantle. You may not be able to see the words from here, but they obviously spell out "Happy Father's Day"
And he got another surprise that he wasn't expecting...one that I was really excited about and excited to make. It's not put up yet as I'm waiting for the one of myself and the kids to come in the mail. It's a mounted wall art from shutterfly, similar to a canvas wall art, but a little different. They are pictures of all three kids with Nick when they were first born or shortly thereafter. Mine will be very similar to this and I'm going to put them both up in Rex's room. Can you tell which baby is which? It's not the best picture of it but hopefully you can tell. I'll have to post another picture later of both when I get them on the wall together. We also celebrated with Cashew Chicken of course! His absolute favorite meal of all time! 
For those wondering, it's left to right: Kayley, Cora, and Rex.
They had an Alice in Wonderland display which the girls loved. When we were leaving the display we ran into some of the characters. They only wanted their picture taken with Alice. I didn't notice until I loaded the picture that Cora's eyes were funny...and they only wanted to take one picture. Oh well!
The water play area...this part reminds me of Paradise Park...as well as the grocery shopping part. The girls could have played for hours in both places. 
Here's a pic of Rex who was also a great trooper in being happy having to stay in the front pack for so long. We did let him out in a few areas. We let him play for a long time in the under 2 section. They had slides and climbing places...he had a blast!
And then he found the ball pit........... Have a said that this boy LOVES balls...of any type or size! It took us a long time to get him away from the balls. It's like he's in his own element here. He had so much fun I couldn't even get him to look at the camera for a picture!
And more pictures of him enjoying himself. He loved looking at himself in the mirror. He kept talking to himself, it was cute. He also loved being able to stand and play with the girls in the pretend kitchen. The girls really weren't supposed to be in this section since it was for kids under 2, but they were the only three kids in that small part, so I didn't feel so bad letting them play with their brother!
Then there is the baby section!! Daddy got to rest his weary back on the nice recliner and Rex very patiently watched...did I tell you he was really good? 
And you know how I mentioned Rex being in his element in the ball pit, the baby section was the girls' element! They wanted to play there for hours too! They loved being able to play doctor and weigh their babies, bath them, dress them, change them, you name it. I couldn't get them to look at the camera either they were having so much fun!
And the last stop was the craft section. We almost didn't go to this section as we found out we were there the free family night and it was almost time for it to start. We wanted to miss the crowds and crowds of people that were lined up outside waiting to come in for free. We like free, but I think we would have passed on that even if we had known ahead of time...there were tons of people! But luckily none of them were itching to go to the craft section. The girls both painted pictures, I missed getting a picture of Kayley painting hers. And then Nick had a blast at the magnet part. They all three got into these magnetic pieces...not even sure what they are called, but I know now to look out for them for all the kids, including Nick! I think he found his element here! And Cora even did the beanstalk this time, the last time she was scared to do it and this time she went down with Kayley once. Kayley could spend hours in the beanstalk. The Magic House is so much fun and I'm sure we'll be back sometime soon the next time we're in St. Louis!
