It's a Girl!!

Here are the pictures from that ultrasound! Doesn't she have the most adorable nose? Oh I can't wait to meet this sweet bundle of joy!










Still can't believe it's a girl! But I guess here is the picture to prove it!

Gender Party

We had our doctor appointment this week and everything looks great! We saw Dr. Taft and I just love him! He took a good look at the baby and said that everything looked healthy and happy! The best news was that the blood clot doesn't even look like an issue anymore! Praise the Lord! I do not want to take this for granted because it easily could have gone the other way. So my understanding now is that they are treating the pregnancy like a normal one so I can go back to seeing midwives. I won't need to be seen again until 5 weeks!


Favorite memory from the visit was we took Cora with us to the appointment. I wasn't sure how much she understood about the baby. Well she loved seeing the baby on the screen. She kept pointing at it, saying "baby, baby!". Dr. Taft even picked her up and sat her in his lap while he did the ultrasound and she was so content just sitting there watching everything. He even printed off her own photo of the baby for her to have. Wish I had a photo of that sweet moment!


We told them our plan for the party so they did a great job of keeping it a secret for us and put the photos in an envelope for us to see later.


Which brings us to today! Our gender party!! We had a great time - the guys worked on the swing set and the girls played with the kids and tried keeping them entertained. After dinner we cut into the cake to find out what this little one is! It was a great experience! I loved doing this!



We took Cora and Parker strawberry picking. She loves some strawberries. She kept saying "taste, taste!"



Our cake! Turned out so good! and it tasted even better!



To our absolute shock! We are having another girl!! I was SHOCKED to see pink. William and I cut into the cake and when we pulled the knife out, it had pink frosting on it!

The redneck boys after a long day building Cora's swing set!  She has loved it and we are so thankful for our family!

Belly Shot - 17 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:


How far along: 17 weeks.


Maternity Clothes: Are a must now! Thankfully I got cute clothes from my sis in law, Williams coworker, and friends! All my maternity clothes are for the winter so I needed summer ones!


Best Moment This week: We go to the doctor in 2 days to find out the the gender and also see how everything is going! We are keeping the gender a surprise until Saturday, when all our family is here helping us put together Cora's swing set! A friend is making a cake with the frosting inside being pink or blue for the sex! We are excited!!


Gender: Still thinking boy. But I kind of want another girl. Not sure why. I think it's because that is all I know!


Movement: Feeling little bumps. Nothing to big yet!


Food Cravings: I def. love to eat! The Easter candy has not been helping!


Sleep: I feel like I'm not getting enough.


Symptoms: Feeling more energetic now that I'm in the second trimester. I have this motivation to get everything done but I haven't done anything yet!

Happy Easter!

The Bell Family, Easter 2011

Hunt at the Millsap's

One Easter egg hunt isn't enough! We had to go to our annual church egg hunt as well! The Millsap family (who lives close by, luckily!) host a hunt for the kids every year at their home. They have a great yard to hide alot of eggs. Over 1000 eggs! Cora did pretty well. She got around 5 of the 1000. The other kids were skilled. They must have been practicing all year round. Next year we will train Cora, ha ha!



William is getting better with Cora's hair! Cute pigtails!

On the hunt...

For eggs that is! Today we got invited to our friends, The Fellers, for their annual Easter Egg Hunt. They do this every year, inviting their neighbors in a chance to share the real reason behind Easter. It's not about candy or bunnies or eggs. It's about celebrating our Savior that rose from the dead and is alive today! It's a great ministry.


It was a little chilly and rainy but that didn't stop us from having a good time. Fun memory: we have never really given Cora candy before. Once she discovered that jelly beans were inside the plastic eggs, she stopped looking and just started opening the eggs and eating the candy! I know where she gets her sweet tooth from, me! I love candy!



She did a good job picking up eggs and putting them in her basket.


She even had a personal umbrella holder - her daddy!

Birthday Girl - Party #2

Today is Cora's 2nd Birthday! Oh wow! My baby is 2 years old. Cora has been such a joy to us. Here is just a small update on her.


Likes: Sesame Street, Disney movies, singing songs - especially "B-I-B-L-E", "Donkey song" - she asks us to sing these alot. Loves to play chase and say "I got you!". Loves her cousin Parker, her Papa's, and her neighbor Ben. Loves her puppy and blankie and must sleep with them all the time. She can say "I love you" and "I'm sorry" in the sweetest voice. She gives hugs and kisses. She likes to go down slides and hold hands. She is a good eater - loves cheese and milk. She sleeps pretty well, from around 7pm to 7:30, 8 am. Takes 1 nap a day - from 12:15 - 3pm or so. She has been pretty healthy and is doing well in all her development.


William and I are going on a trip to celebrate our anniversary, so since we will be travelling close to where his family lives, we did another party there to save them a trip to visit us! I just hope Cora doesn't expect multiple parties every year!!



We started out the day continuing the tradition of pancakes in the shape of your age! The big "2" for Cora!









Eating pizza and Mema and Papa's house!




She was so serious blowing out her candles!!

Birthday Girl - Party #1

Tomorrow is Cora's 2nd birthday! But due to some travel plans, we've decided to do two small parties - one for my side of the family who live nearby and then another for Williams family since we will be visiting anyway. So what kind of party do we have? Elmo, of course! This little girl loves some Sesame Street! So that decision was pretty easy. We had a great time with our neighbors and my dad and brother. Cora definitely understood cake and present time! We just love our little girl!



We started out the day by going to Toys-R-Us!  They gave her a balloon and she got to pick out some toys from Great Grandma Bell.  William also picked out our gift - a swing set!  pics of that to come later.



We had a pizza and cupcake party!  I made the cupcakes myself, from scratch.  Wish I could have gone all out and down an elmo face in complete icing but alas not enough time or patience.  The plastic rings did just fine! 



Cora was so cute when we sang "happy birthday" to her! She tried so hard to sing along.. All that came out was "Happy to you"!

Cora running around outside in her new dress up skirt! 

6 year anniversary!

Today, William and I celebrate our marriage! 6 years.. Hard to believe how fast it has gone by. I really can not think of a better way to celebrate it than being apart of my dear friend Erica's wedding! She asked us to photograph their special day and of course we said Yes! She has an amazing story, one that is too much for me to share in just one entry. All I will say was that seeing her this happy filled my heart with joy! It was wonderful being able to capture all their sweet smiles, laughs of joy, and cheeky kisses! I am excited to be able to share our anniversary date with them. At least I'll never forget it!



The Larter's!



I had to get a shot with the happy couple!

They even had special cupcakes to celebrate our special day. That is just the kind of person Erica is!  So thoughtful and always thinking of others!

Katherine's wedding

Katherine and Kevin were married today!! Yeah! It was a beautiful wedding at the Grand Marquis Ballroom. We were all in the wedding. I was a bridesmaid, William an usher and Cora was a flower girl. I was pretty nervous about Cora going down the aisle. She is not quite 2 so there really is no predicting how she will act. Plus she was not on her normal routine. About 5 minutes prior, she was pretty upset and I did not see it happening. I missed walking down the aisle because she wouldn't let go of me! So Katherine gave the okay for William and I both to walk down the aisle with her. She did great! We asked her if she wanted to walk and she held Williams hand with one hand and her little basket with the other. William and I helped her throw out her petals. So whew! So glad we survived and we got one photo to show for it!