A few favorites

Daicia got these great shots of Rhett while we were visiting. Hand over your child, they don't even have to be in the best mood,  give her 20 minutes and it always amazes me the shots she gets. So many of my most treasured photographs of my children are her handiwork. Thanks again Daicia!

 

A few favorites:

 

 

His face is filling out so much, he's got the signature Bell sweet little chubby baby checks.



Ava wasn't interested in being in pictures but Quinn was up for it, such a sweet picture. Also historic day sporting his first cowboys gear.

 



Aunt Amy Kisses.

Love these two shots. Pretty sure he is going to stay our blue eyed baby. The bottom one is Ryan and I's favorite of  him so far. Love all that crazy hair of his and his sweet little expressions. 

 



Rhett's 13 weeks old this week! Tonight is the eve of my last day of maternity leave. I return to work on Wednesday. Looking forward to getting back into the swing and finding our new normal with me back at work part time. I love being home raising these crazy kids and I love my job - pretty thankful to get to do both in a way that works great for us during this season of family life.

Houston trip - part 2

 

So on Wednesday during Houston week we strategically timed dropping off Aunt Amy and Picking up Ryan at the airport for the second half of our trip. We went to my brother's new home and enjoyed our annual summer Bell Bash. We enjoyed morning, afternoon and evening swims in their awesome pool, stopping in between to eat or watch the Zimmerman trial. We took turns with the meals, planing made a month in advance to make sure we could count on a variety of good eats. We had our birthday exchange and I made an Ikea run one day but other than that we just enjoyed hanging at the house.

 

My niece Adley looking super cute in her sun hat.

 

Rhett was so excited for patty cake with his cousins.

 



 

Some family volly ball also went down a few nights.

 

 

Ava got in lots of swim practice.

 

Crazy Uncle Ryan photo-bombing the girls picture.

Chloe (13) Allie (10) Ava (3)

 



Even Rhett came for a few evening swims.

 



The kids traveled great on the way there and back. Thanks Matt and Lori for hosting I loved the trip but I also love getting settled back this week.

Houston Trip - Part 1.

We made or annual trip to Houston last week. We made an additional stop after visiting our college friends since now Matt and Lori now live there also and my family was having our summer get together there this year. So here's Part 1 of our adventures in H-Town!

 

Aunt Amy rode down with us and joined us for this leg of the visit. It was nice to get spend time together and was so nice to have another baby wrangler to assist me. (Thanks Aunt Amy!! I don't tell you enough what a blessing you are to us). During the trip while Amy was trying to help Ava with her headphones for the I-Pad. Ava looked up at her and said with a big, appreciative smile. "You're such a good Aunt Amy". I couldn't agree more. 

 

On our way in town we met up for dinner at Chuey's, a great Mexican eatery, we love to eat at when we come to town. Rhett was born the day after Matt and Daicia left this spring so this was there first time to meet him.

 

 

Sunday we succesfully wrangled all four of kids under the age of 5 through worship and lunch afterwards. We spent that afternoon at their awesome neighborhood pool. It was Ava's first swim of the summer. (Matt kept the boys at the house for some rest time while we went, super nice of him and he is one of few guy friends I really didn't think twice about watching a baby.)

Ava had a blast. The Lahmeyer's house is quite the wonderland of fun. They have an amazing play room set up inside and a great outside play area as well. There was toad hunting in the evenings, mud pie cookin', story time and of course lots free play time. The girls even snuck in an unauthorized hair shop playing time and Quinn gave Ava a little trim. Daicia and I still can't figure out how they snuck it in when it was during a time we were all in and out of the play room as dinner was being prepared. The girls had their moments here and there but overall got along great, so fun to watch their friendship grow.

 

Tuesday we went to the highly recommended (by Ava's grandpa) butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Our mutual friend Shannon met up with us and then we went to her and her Matt's place for dinner. Shannon is a fantastic cook and made us a pretty awesome dinner complete with from scratch cinnamon rolls that my mouth is watering just thinking about. We talked Matt M into breaking out his trombone,  He, Ava and Quinn and their impromptu band played us a few songs.

 

(Thanks Shannon for the pictures!)

Some of my favorite times was after we got the kids to bed each night. We would just relax and talk, taking turns rocking or bouncing Rhett to sleep, eat ice cream, watch a movie or an episode of first 48 and just be together. I love warm conversation you can have with close friends, where it easily flows from deep conversation on meaningful topics to laughter and not-so-deep conversations that are just as good for the soul. It always brings me back to all those late nights we shared living together during those college years that are so near and dear to my heart. I love getting re-create it even for a few days.

Our Fourth Celebrations!

What feels more like summer than the 4th of July!?  We had a pretty great week celebrating.

 

First up one of our annual family traditions was the Star Spangled Friend Chicken Dinner at church. It involves singing patriotic songs, a bi-cycle parade that the kids do, eating fried chicken of course and then a smorgasbord of homemade ice cream from various members. This was Ava's fourth one and Rhett's very first!

 

Ava and Izzy in their patriotic attire!

Ava was so excited to decorate her Tri-cycle and be in the parade.
 

Then we had a neighborhood bike parade and cook out. We celebrated in style with some democracy in action at the cookout over a fun topic of raising HOA due for some projects and repairs that need to get done. Ryan is currently serving as our HOA president and got to oversee this vote and debate.  

 



Oh the captions I can come up with for these pictures. Our two little cuties the morning of the fourth!

That night we stayed in and I was really glad we did, our neighbors had quite the show going on. About 8-10 different neighbors had some pretty impressive shows and we got to watch it all from the comfort of our front porch while Ava got to set off a few of her own.

 





Arcadia Adventure

Our children's ministry has organized some fun events called Monday's in the Metro this summer. We've had lots of fun already around the metro at places and/or events we wouldn't have otherwise ran across. This past Monday we went down old route 66 to Arcadia to the historic  Red Round Barn (realized once we were there I had been to an event there before during college), then we went to Pops for lunch. (Thanks Katie for the great picture of the day! Yours were better than mine so I decided to steal them for this post.)

 

I  heard this week that a new Gallup poll indicates as much as 70% of Americans hate or strongly dislike their job. Then this week I met Mr. Sam. He has lived his whole life in this area, was part of the group that helped restore this historic barn and now runs the gift ship and gives a mini tour and history lesson on the barn and the surrounding areas. I am not sure if he even gets paid for this job but boy is he excited and proud to do what he does. He is 87 years young and his passion and energy was moving to me. I feel blessed to be returning next month to work I love. I know the kind of boss I work for maybe a rare breed in the level of support, kindness and motivation I feel from getting to work under that kind of leadership which also lends to me loving my job. I feel like the stat above may indicate even more about the discontentness of our society despite much of our wealth comparative to the rest of the world. On the other hand I know many in this country do what they need to do to provide for their families and haven't had the kind of opportunities I've had of education and professional development that has allowed me to easily pursue my passion and interests. Either way, I still feel Mr. Sam is a great life lesson and example for us for a wise truth that I hope to instill in our children: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord..." Thanks Mr. Sam, with the deepest sincerity it truly was a pleasure meeting you.

and lastely just keeping it real. Adventures with 3 year olds aren't always sunshine and rainbows. Pretty sure I am on the other end of the death look but I don't recall why. She was actually really pleasant most of the day but I kind of love this captured in photo it such an authentic part of the here and now with this season of life:

 

 

Happy mid week! 

Rhett's 1st and 2nd month recap.

Today our boy is 8 weeks old! Its so amazing how he fits right in this space in our family we didn't even know was his all along but its so natural and perfect to have him here. These months have had so many my-heart-is-full moments. Even just riding around town with me and them, I look in the rear view mirror and marvel that there are two of them.

 

He's favorites right now are ceiling fans, mirrors and car rides. Currently his changing station is on my dresser in our room and he loves to gaze in the mirror. For the most part he is so content the majority of the time. His laid back temperment has made me braver in our outings and we are really having a pretty fun summer getting out and about.

 

He sleeps in the basinet in our room still. Sleeping patterns are that he goes down around 11:00 most nights, eats around 3 or 4 and then again at 6 or 7. He usually goes back to sleep between feedings. If he has trouble going back to sleep, holding him and bouncing on the exercise ball usually does the trick fairly quickly most nights.

He out grew his newborn clothes after the first month and is now wearing 3 month clothes.
 



This is my favorite picture from these months, this was a Saturday morning that Ryan was letting me sleep in, I found them like this when I got up and around.

 



Of course our favorite milestone from this month, sweet sweet smiles!
 

In some ways it feels like he's been with us forever and in other ways it's so hard to believe two months have already passed. Each day feels like we keep falling in love with him in new ways. So grateful for the blessing of watching this little guy grow!

Busy Bag Party!

Our children's ministry hosted a busy bag party on Monday. It was targeted for kids under four and we each made a busy bag (Busy bags have homemade activities that keep little minds or hands busy) that we duplicated to have enough for each family and then we swapped bags. Since I don't sew, my crafting medium that I have found success with is simple shapes that involve hot glue or modge podge. So I came across this No-Sew Felt Fish busy bag activity that I felt (pun intended) was within my crafting capabilities and what do you know multiple trips to the store, a few burnt fingers and hours of work later we completed our bags to bring to the swap. I really am glad we did it despite it being a bit more involved then I first thought and even more glad they turned out how I wanted them. The best part was while we had a small group of us, we had two visitors from the community attend the get together and they seemed to have a good time.

 

 

All our supplies

Our finished product!

Ava was pretty concerned about giving away our fish that we worked so hard on to our friends but pretty sure she will be happy with the stash we got to take home. I plan to keep most of them put up till our road trip to Houston next month to keep them new and novel. 



 

Lake Hefner was on our way home so we stopped of there for a picnic lunch and flower pickin'. Have I mentioned yet that I heart summer! I love that my maternity will last through most of it so I can soak up these days with them. Summer 2013 will always have a special place in my heart.