November Events

November was probably my favorite month out of all the last couple of 9 months (it was 9 months ago we started the whole sell our home/buy a new home process).  We have never felt so blessed, well with the exceptions of when each of our children were born.  But seriously this whole process was definitely led by Heavenly Father and it has been neat to look back and see all the tender mercies.  I always had an internal goal when we listed our house for sale to have the house sold and be moved into a new house by the time our baby was to be born February 1st.  I also thought how nice it would be to have everything finished by the holidays.  One huge tender mercy or maybe miracle that did occur was just that, we were able to move in November 7th!  Plenty of time to get unpacked before Thanksgiving even...I was just thinking Christmas would be nice!

And of course we had lots of help once again from our great family that lives nearby!  And this time around we had people from our ward come and help unload as we unloaded all our stuff from our storage pod.  Here's a collection of pictures from around the moving day.  Kayley actually had her music program at school that day so timing of everything was a bit crazy, but we were able to figure it all out!

Here's a cute picture of a book Kayley made in her class.  I thought it was cute what she said was the definition of being grounded.  I'm sure she won't think the definition is the same when she's older and actually has to be grounded...but let's hope that doesn't have to happen!

Then Shannon and John were our first guests in our new home as John had some work to do up here about a week after we had moved in.  It gave me the incentive to unpack quicker (hard to get incentive sometimes when you are 7 months pregnant at this point.)  But we all met up with Michelle and Kendall and Randy at Bass Pro for a visit with Santa and dinner.  The kids had a blast and we loved that it wasn't busy at all.  They got right up to see Santa and Santa got to spend some quality time listening to each kid on what they wanted for Christmas.  It was fun!

Here are my kids seeing Santa Claus...again he was great to fully listen to what they wanted.  Rex wasn't scared a bit with Santa surprisingly!

The Walkers and the Huffords visiting with Santa.  No one cried for Santa here either, a rarity! 

 And the workers and Santa were really nice to let us bring all the kids in and get pictures of them altogether!  I actually got one of them all pretty much looking and smiling!

Another perk of us going in November, the wonderland toys all still worked!  Rex adored the Choo-Choo table and it was very difficult to get him to leave it!  It's so cute to see how much he loves them!

One of our friends from church had a baby in November and they came over to welcome us to the neighborhood as our neighborhoods connect to one another.  Cora got to get her baby fix in with Baby Kona.  She is so ready for a new baby in the house!

The Bradfields are a family that lived across the street from Jan and John back when we all lived in Columbia.  Brett became a convert and then they moved and within a few years, his wife Cristy also became a member.  The third weekend in November Nick and I were able to attend their family's sealing in the Kansas City Temple.  What a wonderful experience this was to be able to see the joy the sealing brought to this sweet family.  It is always a reminder of how blessed I am to be married in the temple to Nick and to know that our family is an eternal family.

The first grade at Kayley's school did a Thanksgiving feast this year.  Sarah was kind enough to just hang out at our house for the day as Cora's school also did a Thanksgiving feast.  So I pretty muched hopped from school to school.  I cooked stuffing for Cora's school and had to have that dropped off at a certain time.  I made one of the turkeys for Kayley's school and had to have that dropped off at a certain time.  Then I volunteered at both schools to serve the feast.  It went very smoothly and I loved being able to spend time with both of them at their feasts.  I only got pictures of Kayley's feast though and forgot to snap a pic at Cora's feast.  They both had a lot of fun though!

Also this month I hit 30 weeks.  I have felt very blessed throughout this pregnancy.  Considering all we have been through with moving out of the new house, moving into the apartment, and then moving into the new house, I haven't had as many aches and pains as I thought I would have physically.  Or the pains I have had, I've been able to manage.  We had many ups and downs with Rex having high amounts of fluids, but this baby has been perfect.  I hope the baby continues to be perfect when he/she arrives!

And this is just a cute shot of Rex after he had some Nutella.  I never had Nutella growing up and honestly I'm not a die hard fan.  But Cora and Rex like it with teddy grahams.  I just always have to prep myself for a mess such as this!

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.