October Events

October was another crazy month for us, but with us moving, what month hasn't been crazy?!  Here is what we did:

The girls had their well checks.  They were all where they needed to be.  Rex's well check was back in July, but I forgot to put his stats up so they got put up here with the girls.

Sarah put together a bunch of fun play dates with the warm weather.  The month of October we went to the Lee's Summit Fire Department and did a tour.  Rex loved it as he loves cars and trucks!  Cora had pajama day that day at school, so she looked like she just rolled out of bed.

Kayley's teacher is always so great at sending me pics.  Here are some of spirit week, which I could not get Kayley to participate in at all!  Top left are the nerds and top right are the non-nerds that dressed up for Nerd Day.  Bottom left is of Kayley doing a project at school.  I ate lunch with her this day and she was so excited to tell me she was the captain of the girls team!

Also in the month of October we have the semi-annual General Conference.  It's so nice to get to watch it in the luxury of our own home. Here is Rex and Cora working on their conference packets and lounging in their PJ's.

I very rarely go to Hobby Lobby, but Rex was so cute one day and wanted to hold the shopping basket.

I've tried to learn little by little how to use my new camera.  I still don't know all it's capabilities.  However the kids and I had fun doing a little photo shoot. Here are Kayley's pictures.  

 Cora's pictures...it was very windy that day and her hair seemed to be flying in her face the most!

 Rex's pictures.  It was hard to get him to 1) look at the camera and 2) to smile...very difficult to do those two things at once!  Either way, he's cute!

 Pictures of them together!  I just love my kids!  They really did have fun doing these.  The girls were great helpers with Rex.  He got distracted very easily!

 And of course their favorite pictures were the silly faced pictures!  And only got a few of Kayley and Cora...but I just love that they are such great buddies!

We attended Audrey and Lauren's soccer games.  They really enjoy the sport.  Cora is very excited to start soccer this next fall when she starts kindergarten. 

 I hit 25 weeks.  At this point in my pregnancy my headaches are pretty much happening everyday.  Thank goodness for Excedrin Tension Headache and Sudafed.  Pretty much have to take these everyday.  Other than that, I feel pretty good!

Audrey turned 7 years old.  The kids had a blast celebrating together!

One thing I was shocked about was amidst all the chaos we have been through in the last couple of months with moving, we actually carved pumpkins before Halloween this year!  Usually on a normal year we end up carving them afterwards for various reasons.  And on top of it all Kayley actually got her hands dirty this year and helped get the pumpkin guts out.  Grandpa came and joined us, which the kids loved.  We love having him so close where he can come over and participate in many activities with us.  Kayley and Cora did a regular jack o lantern pumpkin and since Rex loves Choo-Choos so much Daddy carved one out for him in the other pumpkin.  He loved it!

Our ward had their Halloween party, which is always fun.  Randy also joined us for part of that.  Nick however missed it all because he was on call.  But the kids still had fun.  Kayley was Pocahontas, Cora was Dorothy, and Rex was supposed to be Mater from Cars, but anytime anyone asked him what he was going to be for Halloween he would say a Choo-Choo.  So I remembered we had some blue overalls and found a hat at a thrift store that would look like a train conductor's hat and he went as a Train Conductor (or a Choo-Choo according to him).

Then over a long weekend of Parent Teacher Conferences we got together with the Walkers to go to the zoo.  It was actually a very cold day (far and few between this fall/early winter).  The kids had a blast.  We ventured to the Africa side, which Michelle and I actually made it through the whole thing! :)  After that we went to the Bird room/Discovery Barn for the kids to play on the indoor slide.  Rex did not like the Parakeets, who were ridiculously loud (demonstrated by the upper right picture). 

Then here are a collection of pictures from the end of October.  Our Stake Conference was this month and the kids wanted to go to the Visitor's Center.  It had been a while since we had been and they got to go with Daddy this time and loved it.  Then just a couple other cute pictures of Rex enjoying an apple and wearing Gator gear.

Kayley's school Halloween party was lots of fun.  Nick was able to attend Cora's party and Rex and I went to Kayley's party.  Rex loved being able to be involved with Kayley and her party.  Her friends love to see Rex and have him come.

Then finally we ended the month with trick or treating for Halloween.  The Felkers joined us and we went to our old neighborhood since we were currently living in our apartment.  Sadly enough Cora came home from school the day before throwing up.  All day on Halloween she acted fine and didn't throw up anymore so we thought we were in the clear.  However, a couple days later, Lauren sadly got it.

September Events

As mentioned for the month of August, the month of September was another crazy month as we sold our home and moved into a temporary apartment.  However we were still able to have fun and document some things we did. 

Kayley's teacher is great about sending me pics of her throughout the day from school.  Here she is playing with one of her friends Ryleigh.  Ryleigh was in Kayley's kindergarten class last year and she was excited Ryleigh was in her 1st grade class again. 

 Cora's school had their first field trip to the zoo this year.  Usually they go to a pumpkin patch but I think everyone was more excited to get to go to the zoo this year.  I got to chaperone the field trip and Cora was so excited!

 Each class kind of went their own route throughout the zoo so I got to see names with faces on who Cora plays with during the day.  She has some great friends in her class and she is a great friend to all of them.  This top left picture is of a kangaroo at the zoo.  The kangaroos literally run throughout the park, it's crazy.  This particular one was a Momma and was carrying it's Joey kangaroo in it's pouch.  She decided to park right on the pathway we were supposed to walk on.  We had to wait until the Momma left because we knew we weren't going to disturb a Momma and her baby!

 At the end, everyone ended up meeting at the Polar Bear Exhibit, probably because it was cooler in there...it was a hot day!  The kids loved taking turns sitting right in front of Nakita and her "show."  She runs the same course in the water and puts her huge paws on the glass.  It was a great field trip and Cora had a blast being able to ride the bus and having Mommy come with her.

 I also hit the halfway mark in my pregnancy and made it to 20 weeks.  At this point I was feeling pretty good.  I still get my daily headaches but thank goodness for Excedrin Tension Headache.  Without that medicine, I would be in intense pain all the time with headaches.

We had our ultrasound and made it through it without finding out the gender of the baby.  I think if we weren't in the middle of a move, I would be dying to find out, but since we are a little bit occupied, keeping this baby a surprise is a piece of cake!

 Here's my cute Rex just being cute.  I think this day we were cleaning out the garage and he just stopped and posed for the camera.  The kids have been great troopers through the whole move.  We have been thinning out a lot of items and getting rid of a lot of toys and other items.  We put about 75% of our stuff into a storage pod and left the rest out to go to our apartment.

The big day finally came September 20th.  We closed and the buyers closed on our house.  We moved into our apartment that night with the help of family.  It was rather bittersweet leaving our home of 5 years now.  However, we knew we were eventually going to be moving into a larger home so it was also exciting.  The girls walked around the whole house taking pictures of it so they could remember the house.  Everyday after picking them up from school, we drive by it and they kept saying, "There's our old house, I want to shrink it and put it in my pocket!"  Apartment living is interesting, especially with three kids.  Things I took for granted were being able to take groceries in and out of the house easily, having access to things in the garage (stroller, shop-vac, etc), being able to transfer Rex to his bed because he fell asleep on the way home, etc.  All these things made it a little crazy but we are managing!

This was probably the hardest part of our house to leave...the girls room.  When we first moved in, I absolutely fell in love with their room.  I mean look at it, who wouldn't?  Oh that's right, our buyers didn't!  She wanted me to paint over it!  The part that was even worse was the color she picked was the color of masking tape, very dull.  The girls took tons of pictures of their room also because they were sad to paint over it as well.  Needless to say, I don't think I'll ever be able to recreate this! 

 While I was unpacking the apartment I came across this box that Kayley had marked on.  It says, "Super Mom"...made my day as I've felt very guilty being so occupied with the move and painting and packing that I've felt like I've neglected my kids for the past 2 months.  I just love her!

Later in the month we said goodbye to the Sanders family.  They moved from Sikeston to Utah and came through and stayed with family along their trek out west.  My girls love the Sanders, especially Caroline and Julia!  They look up to them like crazy and love to play with them.  It was bittersweet for all of us as we knew the move would be good for them, but of course hate they will be so far away now!

More posing with cousins.  Always have to have a silly faced picture! (bottom left)

Nick was on call that day so he had a crazy call day and missed seeing them off, but we were able to visit with them the night before and Nick said his goodbyes then.  

 Other pictures from this month:

 Then the next to last day of the month, Nick needed to go to the Apple store for something at the Plaza.  Afterwards we went to the fountains, which they had just dyed all the water pink in preparation for October being Breast Cancer awareness month.  The kids loved seeing the pink water.  They also played on the exercise equipment that was along the trail.

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!!