School starts!

Today was the first day of school. Taneal started second grade and Camie started kindergarten. Taneal was very apprehensive and positive she was going to cry as soon as I left her. Camie was so excited. She claimed she was "scrappy" (her new term learned from her cousin Tyler, a combination of scared and happy). I don't think Camie was at all scared. She was so excited she walked straight to her room and only kissed me goodbye because I called her back. She even wanted to ride the bus. Taneal ended up doing great without any tears this morning, although we had them a lot last week. I guess the difference is first born vs. middle child? They will love school. The teachers are great, the school seems great, and I think this year will be a great success.

Spencer LOVES Danielle

As Danielle crashed on the floor asleep in the middle of the living room, Spencer decided she was fair game. He sat on her, lied down on her, and kissed on her and she slept through the whole of it. After I got pictures, I rescued her to the couch so she could get some real, uninterrupted sleep.

Rachel gets married

Rachel married Jeremy on Friday, August 17th in the Salt Lake City Temple. Evan flew in with Troy and Becky and I stayed home with the children. I have not yet met Jeremy, but have only heard wonderful things about him. Rachel married into a wonderful family and will have absolutely beautiful children. I heard Jeremy's sisters are absolutely gorgeous, so Rachel will fit right in! Congratulation to the new couple!

This is a picture of Rachel and all her sisters: Trina, Reyna, Rachel, Jeremy, and Nancy

Back-to-school tea party

Audrey invited Taneal, Camie, and Danielle to a back-to-school tea party and requested they wear "fun dress-ups". Of course they HAD to wear make-up and have their hair done. I had a lot of fun getting them ready. They are such beautiful girls. It was strange to see them in make-up and with their hair done up. They looked too grown-up! I'm glad Taneal is still years away from make-up.

Audrey lives close!

Taneal, Camie and Danielle are so excited to have Audrey living so near. I think we live closer to family here in Texas then we ever did when we lived by a bunch of family in Utah. our subdivisions are next to each other. As a bird flies, we are probably about a mile from Troy and Becky. However, I live at the back of my subdivision and so do Troy and Becky, so the drive is about 10 minutes. We have been able to get together with Audrey several time a week since we moved here.

















The pictures here are of a tea party that Taneal and Camie planned when we were still in Katy to have with Audrey right after we moved.

Danielle turns three

Danielle's birthday was July 29th and she was very set on having her birthday in our new house. So, to acheive this, we delayed having her birthday until the following Sunday. We moved into our house on Saturday, August 4th and celebrated her special day on Sunday. Becky prepared Danielle's favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs. We ate dinner at Becky's house because we were still in boxes. I managed to find my cake pans and decorating supplies so I could decorate Danielle the birthday cake she had been talking about. Fortunately she was please with the cake. It was my first time baking in my new gas oven.

Danielle really was excited to turn three. She even learned how to say "three" correctly. She understood that once she was three she had to eat the crust on her sandwiches. She could no longer even have a sippy cup once in a while. She was a BIG GIRL and that was serious. I loved how serious she was. The day after her celebrated birthday, she ate the crust on her sandwich all on her own and has not asked for a sippy cup since!

The move!

I must have really talked up our new house because the kids loved helping me label boxes and getting thier things packed up. Spencer was even in the spirit of decorating the boxes. I was glad to see their excitement because the move was accross town and we would be leaving our friends behind.

I was amazed at how many boxes it took to pack my house. I didn't feel like we had a lot of things, but I was suprised. I didn't start packing until about a week before the move, and I was busy. I had basically everything packed up as the moving truck arrived. Towards the end Spencer starting having a hard time, he knew something was going on.

I made some great friends in Katy. Tuesday before the move, Sam, one of my yound women, showed up at my house. I had just got home form swimming and Evan kept calling telling me to get ready because the home teachers were coming over. He got home and I was still in my swimsuit. He practically made me get into the shower. A few minutes later Sam showed up and said she was here to "steal" me. I made sure it was alright if I missed the Home Teachers and he smiled and said to go ahead. Later on I realized the Home Teachers weren't coming, Evan was just in on the plan. Sam drove me to Chipolte's where nine women and friends from the ward were there waiting for a suprise going away dinner. I have made such wonderful friends and it was so sad to say good-bye. I will miss them all.

Several of my friends helped with the move. Kelley Ann brought dinner over, and it was SOOOO good. The day of the move Debbie watched ALL my children and Sarah cooked dinner for us and volunteered her husband to go help move boxes. Troy, Evan's brother, came and helped, ALOT! He stayed until we were done packing, which was late, and then drove with us to our new house, let us stay the night at their house, and spent the entire next day unloading and hanging blinds. His two boys spent the whole day moving boxes also. Becky, Troy's wife, watched all four children the entire day while I drove back over to Katy and cleaned the house. She had dinner for us that night. Their whole family was such a great help.
















You can tell the move really wore Danielle out. She fell asleep on the couch!

We are homeowners!!!!

Yes, we finally did it!!! We purchased a home and will be moving into it over the next few weeks. I am so excited to be settling down, finally. We have been looking for months and found the home that felt right. This home is in a great location. It is about 10 minutes from Evan's office, 10 minutes from Evan's brother, and about 12 minutes from the temple. The schools are great. The ward is great, and the home is just what I wanted.




















So a few details about the home: My favorite part is the walk-in pantry. Taneal and Camie's favorite part is the jacuzzi bath-tub in the master suite. I also like my closet, it is a VERY nice size. All four bedrooms are upstairs along with a game room. Downstairs has the kitchen, laundry room, a large breakfast room, a family room, and a formal living room with a half bath. The floor plan is great. We are so excited.

The newest addition to the Black Family

Sklyer Black was born in June to Bryce and Katie. Skyler is their third son, no girls. They are just the opposite if Evan and I a year ago! Congratulations to Bryce and Katie, we are so excited for you!

The newest addition to the Bell Family

Aaron Tyler Bell, known through his predelivery life as "Taco", was born Sunday in Las Vegas. Aaron is Eric and Angela's first baby and we are so excited to welcome him into the family. You can view more pictures of Aaron at their blog and also read about the 8 pound 12 ounce delivery at http://www.ericplusangela.blogspot.com/

I can’t believe you are already ONE! You are no longer a little baby. You started really walking about two weeks ago. You took your first steps at eleven months. Right around your birthday you started walking about ten feet. You hadn’t quite figured out how to stand up without holding onto something. Once you figured it out you excitedly practiced until you got it down. You were so proud of yourself! You have the biggest grin. It was fun to watch you be so proud of yourself. The crawling days are over.

You weigh 23 pounds. You are pretty tall, 31 inches. You have your Dad’s build, very broad shoulders. You personality is great. You are pretty happy, usually attached to me, or in close proximity. You are very curious, which is a good thing. You like to empty out the pots and pans. You like to put everything into your mouth. I pulled an alive spider out if your mouth once. YUCK! You like to walk around holding my hand and are involved in whatever I am doing. You like the remote. You like pushing buttons on the phone. You like to wrestle with Danielle. Danielle can make you laugh harder then anyone else. You don’t like to be forced to do anything. You like to talk gibberish. You have taken cars and pushed them around and made noises! My first true boy moment! You growl and do things that my girls never did.

You love dogs. I guess that is a good or bad thing considering our family’s history with dogs. Evan taught you to hang your tongue out of your mouth when you hear the word “dog.” You are pretty cute. You can say the word “dog”, too.

You have picked up on this scream. This isn’t just any scream. This is the ear piercing scream. Once you did it with your mouth close to my ear and I don’t think I could hear for hours afterwards. You mostly do this scream if you are bored or if someone does something you don’t like. The place you do it the most is at the grocery store when it is most embarrassing. You have also done it in Sacrament meeting.

At about eight months you ate food really well. Now you will barely take a taste and then you are done. Your favorite food to eat is Nacho Cheese Doritos. We call them “fire chips” because the package looks like it has fire on it and Danielle gave it its new name.

Let’s talk about the words you know: Mom, Dad, Danielle, dog, don’t, stop, no, yum, hi, happy, birthday, and thank you

You really like to take a bath. You like to put your lips into the water and blow bubbles. The way things are going you are going to be a little fish.

Your sleeping habits- I think I must be doing something wrong. None of you children have ever been much of a sleeper. You go to bed around 9pm and sleep until around 7am. You usually wake up once a night, you just want to be held and then you fall back to sleep. I’m not sure what wakes you up or why. For naps, you take about a 30 minute nap. If your nap is cut short, you might take a later nap for about 20 minutes. Usually you fall asleep around 11am.

I love watching the differences develop between boys and girls. Your sisters adore you, especially Danielle, at lease most of the time. You are really learning to stand your ground and defend yourself with her. You have such a strong will and determination in that little body of yours.

Spencer turns ONE!

Spencer turned one during the family reunion. 45 people sand Happy Birthday to him. Later that night he started singing "happy birthday to you"! At first I was thinking in was a coincidence that his babbling sounding like that, until he repeated himself! We video recorded him singing it and he has been singing in over and over daily since his birthday. I guess having 45 people singing to him made an impression.

He is taking steps, he can walk across the room by himself. He just can't get into the walking position alone. He can stand up at furniture, just hasn't realized he can take off by himself. He gets so excited and is so proud of himself when he walks. He is just so cute to see walking across the room. Too bad I can't share video on this blog!

Family Reunion

The family reunion officially started on Tuesday, but guests started arriving the Wednesday before. I was privledged to have my neice and nephew, Allen and Elle, from Utah, and Austin, Tyler, and Audrey from Houston, come spend a day and a night at my house. We went frog fishing in the Bayou behind my house. A snapping turtle got Tyler's foot twice, and only Tyler. Elle cut her foot somehow, so we came home and went swimming. With my children included, I had nine kids staying at my house. I am amazed how my mother-in-law had sixteen children and my mom eight. I loved having them all at my house, but I was tired after they went home.

Friday night Trina and her two boys came from Utah. They stayed with me until the reunion started on Tuesday and then came back to my house until Friday evening. I sure have a wonderful sister-in-law. She is so down-to-earth and a wonderful mother. I always have liked Trina and I was so fortunate to spend so much time getting to know her again.

We spent Monday at the beach. I don't know about you, but Galveston Beach is so much fun. The water temperature is wonderful. It is almost like bath water but still refreshing. The waves are calm. The beach gently slopes into the ocean so the kids can go out pretty far and still touch. The water isn't very clear, but I think everyone had a blast. A few of us, including me, got sunburned, so next time we will be even more careful and lather on the sunscreen. Spencer sure enjoyed crawling around in the waves.

Three days of the reunion were spent at Troy and Becky's ranch where we stayed cool inside and played water activities outside. We toured the ranch via hay ride minus the hay (a trailer ride pulled by a tractor) We had water games, went to the Blue Bell water park, and the older kids went water skiing. We could not have asked for better weather.

Thursday night we all headed over to Troy and Becky's house for a swimming party. (The only way to stay cool in a Texas summer is staying in the water). That night Allen told memories he had of all his brothers and sisters. I think everyone really enjoyed that evening reminicing. That night Allen and Gerberta and six of their eight children came to my house. Trina and her two boys came along with Evan's parents and Nancy, Rachel, Seth, Quinn, and Lance. I had a house full and was delighted. I love having people visit.

Guests started leaving on Friday. The reunion was so much fun. Evan's family is full of great people who are hard-workers, so willing to pitch in and help, and easy to please. We ate so much fantastic food. I think the total head-count was 45! We were only missing 21 people. Not bad for an immediate family of 66 and 2 on the way.

Camie finishes Mom & Me Preschool

This year Camie attended a Mommy and Me Preschool. All six girls in our ward will begin kidergarten next year. Last fall the moms decided to have preschool once a week, rotating houses of the students. The had a great time doing crafts, learning the ABC's, singing songs, eating lunch together, and getting to know each other. On the last day of preschool, everyone came to Camie's house and we stamped their hands on t-shirts. They had a great time and were pretty silly!

School's out!

Taneal finishes the 1st grade this week. She is growing up so fast. She has become such a good reader and is enjoying reading The American Girl books. She has learned to add double digets and has become great at spelling and writing. She is excited for this summer and all the swimming she hopes to do. Way to go, Taneal!

Walking? Not yet.

Spencer is getting close to walking and having fun practicing. He is cruising all around the furniture, standing up on walls, and even letting go long enough to clap. I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

The Pirates

Our ward had a tallent show called "Latter-Day Night Live" and our family dressed up as pirates and sang and danced with the son The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything by VeggieTales. Evan also was in the skit, but he took this picture

Isn't Camie cute?

Taneal in her Pirate clothes.

Spencer even joined in on the show

Danielle danced right along with us. I figured she would get nervous and hide behind me, but she stood by my side and danced!

Easter

We spent Easter out at the ranch with cousins. We planned on riding 4-wheelers and being outdoors, but the cold weather definitely changed our plans. We had a great time indoors and the girls played hard with their cousins. They built indoor forts, played games, and watched movies. We really enjoy getting together with family.

I sewed and sewed and sewed some more. Taneal's Easter dress was in her favorite color, blue.

Camie's favorite color is not orange, but I loved this fabric so much. She looked so beautiful and was quite excited to wear "high heels"!

Danielle is as cute as ever. She loves pink and picked out her shoes. I finished her dress in February, so she impatiently waited until Easter to wear it.

Spencer is so grown up! This is his first tie. He didn't seem to even notice he was wearing it. I felt like I needed to make him something, but Evan was pretty adamant about not dressing Spencer up. He says he lets me dote on the girls, but I was not to mess with his boy!

Of course, Easter pictures are to be taken outdoors with flowers. The weather would not allow, so as soon as it warms up, we will do an Easter picture retake, somewhere in the beautiful flowers.