The Beautiful Mrs. Bell

She was glowing. She was graceful. She was flawless. She was the "Bell" of the ball.

Well, actually, she was one of many "Bells" at the ball....but she was the newest Bell.

Last weekend my baby sister entered into Holy Matrimony with a one Mr. Brian Bell. We really like him, so it was a rather celebratory occasion.

Chelsea (and possibly Brian) did an amazing job with their wedding. It was, of course, pink and green. It was, of course, completely unique. And it was, of course, perfectly executed.

The kids and I were honored to serve in the wedding party. I as the Matron of Honor. Clinton as the Ring Bearer. And Heidi Sage as the Flower Girl.

We (and I probably mean mostly me) had been very excited about this trip for a very long time. So a week prior to the wedding, the kids and I jetted off to Texas. Can't you just see the excitement dripping off their faces??

We spent 5 days at Bebe and Hop's house working on wedding preparations. My main job....cake balls. 600 of them. You can read about the creation of those here...

The kids main job...to play...to play...to play...

On Wednesday we packed up two large trucks with tons and tons of wedding stuff, two kids, a double stroller, two car seats, and one teeny tiny bag per person, and set off towards Austin...the greatest city to ever grace the presence of this great country. Sigh.

While in Austin, we were able to partake in a number of fun activities. There was a day of visiting all my pals back at Tarrytown UMC. Even after five years of being absent, I walked in the door and felt as if I had never left. Such a special group of ladies. (And I'm a total loser and didn't take one picture while I was there. Ugh.)

We also had several wedding functions to attend. There was the rehearsal dinner at The Salt Lick. Heidi Sage stayed back at the hotel and kicked it with Amy, to which we are VERY grateful! There was the Bridal Tea for the girls...HS and I put on our best sundresses and hightailed it to the Driskal for cucumber sandwiches and the best scones on the planet... Thanks to the Matriarch of the Creech family (Peggy Rose) and her helpers Joy and Polly for hosting such a wonderful event for my sweet sister.

The beautiful bride with her two grandmothers. Grammy on the left and Peggy on the right...that's right, we call her by her first name. Rumor is I started this when I was a wee one, but I don't remember so it's hard for me to take credit for that...

The Bride with her darling flower girl...

The MOH (me) and the Flower Girl (my Heidi Sage)

At the Bridal Tea, we received one of the best surprises of all time. Seriously. You see, we have these VERY dear friends....The Voigts'. They live in Kentucky. They are like family...that you rarely get to see....because they live in Kentucky. And they had sent Chelsea a very sad note explaining why they couldn't be at the wedding. We were all a bit heartbroken, but understood. Natalie is another VERY dear friend. Who is like family. Who we were very excited about seeing at the wedding. She told us she was bringing her mother as her guest to the tea and wedding. She lied....and she works in the ministry....and yet, she still lied. However, we all forgave her as we each walked in to find Sheryl Voigts waiting on us at the tea. This was Natalie's surprise guest. Many tears were cried, BIG hugs were shared, and smiles were spread across our faces for the rest of the day. We were still sad to not see Julianne and the boys, but loved on Sheryl enough for all of them. Below is Mom, Sheryl, and Natalie...with those matching haircuts you can tell they do all belong together! :-)

After the tea we jetted off the to the wedding site to put everything together. Then I ran to get the kids and before we knew it, the wedding was ready to begin. You can find most of the wedding pictures on Chelsea's web site....but here's a few from the bridal room...

Chelsea and Brian--We had such a wonderful time and were so honored to be included on your special day. We are looking forward to many, MANY family functions together!!

The newest little sister to Mr. Bell,

Christmas Catch Up - SEA WORLD

For Christmas we went to San Antonio to meet my sister's fiance's family. We had such a great time and really enjoyed staying in a hotel for the holidays.

Our first day in the big city we met my college roomie, Samantha, and her family at Sea World. She has two boys, Tristan who is 3 months older than Clinton, and Parker who is 10 months older than Heidi Sage. (Somehow I only got one picture of Heidi Sage and no pictures of Parker!!)

The two who enjoyed the trip the most were Clinton and Tristan. They hadn't seen each other since they were babies, but they seemed to just pick up where they left off! They had so much fun playing together. Sam and I wished more than ever that we lived closer to each other!

Heidi Sage enjoying herself? She was actually a saint during our 5 hour tour of the park. She loved watching all the people and even took a good nap.

They had one of Clinton's favorite foods--POPCORN! This was a huge hit for our big guy.

The boys playing! They spent a lot of time like this--pushing each other around and wrestling. They really had the best time together.

The daddies with the big boys. (L - Victor with Tristan; R - Rodney with Clinton)

We all loved feeding the dolphins. Clinton was soaked when we got done and smelled like fish for the rest of the day.

We also really enjoyed the Shamu show. I even cried the first time Shamu jumped out of the water. I had never been to Sea World and had always wanted to see this American icon. It was a little more overwhelming than I thought.

We also saw a Sesame Street Live Christmas show that the boys enjoyed, but it still wasn't good enough to keep them in their seats! We spent a lot of time bribing them with Sam's homemade cookies to stay nearby.

Clinton STILL talks about the "skewy shish" (scary fish a.k.a. Shamu) and the "doppins" (dolphins). We hope to go back again soon!

Enjoying life through my kids' excitement,

Merry Merry Merry Merry Christmas

This week Clinton went to sleep for an afternoon nap in the midst of everything Christmas that continued to linger around our house. But he awoke to a dismantled tree and boxes of decorations ready for the attic.

"Oh NO! Wut hoppened? Mom, da cucumber tree gone." "Yes, mommy put the Christmas tree away. Christmas is over." "O-ber?" "All done." "Presents?" "No more presents." "Oh."

I also got a stern talking to by Clinton about the pile of tree needles I swept into a pile, but didn't vacuum up. "Mom, big twubble. BIG mess!" Oh, simmer skillet...I'll get to it.

Due to some holiday travel, I had to call Santa's emergency line about making alternative arrangements for gifts. Santa and I decided it would be best to have the kids' gifts delivered on Saturday before Christmas. So, all day Friday we told Clinton that Santa was coming, to which he responded each and every time, "No, gake you." (No, thank you.) "But, Clinton, don't you want Santa to bring you presents?" "No, gake you."

Saturday morning I sat in the living room with Heidi Sage and Nana as Rodney literally had to drag Clinton in to see what Santa had brought. Clinton seemed to think that Santa was still there, and he wanted nothing to do with it. Once he saw his first gift he relaxed a little, and with the opening of each one the fears of Santa faded.

After we had our little family Christmas, we had Christmas with Nana and family. The next day we had Christmas with Papa and family. Monday we played and packed. And Tuesday we took 1 stroller, 2 kids, 3 carry ons, and 4 suitcases into the Nashville airport and through the New Orleans airport, we dropped by Dallas Love and reached our final destination in San Antonio. Whew! By the time we got to our Texas Christmas, Clinton was in the swing of things with the gifts and was ready to go....tearing into anything with red and green paper, and crying out, "NOOOO!" when the box contained clothes instead of toys. Yikes.

We had a wonderful visit in SA. We met up with old friends at Sea World (more to come on that). And made new friends as we met Aunt Zsazsie's fiance's family. It was a great time. We loved staying in a hotel....there were no dishes, the beds were made everyday by someone else, and breakfast was waiting for us downstairs EVERY morning. We also loved visiting Brian's family....they love to play games, which was my favorite thing (along with some amazing food). And while Dad was grand champion of the week, I did happen to win a game of Scattegories.

Below are a few pics of Christmas...I'll post more throughout the week.

The day after "Christmas". Heidi Sage wanted to push the mower around, too!

Nana got Clinton this...and he L-O-V-E-S it!

Heidi Sage got the hang of opening gifts, too.

You can't be Christmased out yet...we've still got a few more to go!

Teething rings in the stocking, does Santa know this girl, or what?

Wow, Santa, what a stupid idea. My ears are still ringing.

Bed head runs in our family.

The girls at Brian's family's home. Me, Zsazsie, Heidi Sage and Mother in our annual matching attire.

Always in the middle of it all....always.

Yeah, a doctor's kit! ...Clinton knows all about doctors now!

Mommy and the baby girl.

Halls Decked, Dismantled and Packed Away--

Texas Summer '09 - Picture Wrap Up

Clinton and Conley quickly became friends. In this pic you can see they even swapped their fave stuffed animals. Maybe Clinton is learning to share! ...or flirt!


Clinton was also big buds with Turtle. They spent more time chasing each other and playing with each other than anyone else. Chelsea said once they returned home, Turtle slept for two days. We failed to have such luck with Clinton.


This is the face I get when I tell him to do something he doesn't want to....or to stop doing something he does!


A sweet little girl who LOVES visiting with her Pop!


Everyone enjoyed Bebe's homemade ice cream...


...even Turtle. (The dog who is not allowed to have table food....oops!)


Missing Texas (but not the heat),

Texas Summer '09 - 5 Month Photo Shoot

While we were in Texas, Heidi Sage turned 5 months old! It's hard to believe...for me, anyway. I'm always amazed at how much personality exudes from these itty bitty people.

She is such a content baby, UNLESS....unless you leave her alone in a room, put her in her crib before she's ready to sleep, or don't feed her quickly enough. Then she is fierce! And to be honest, it scares me a little.

She is VERY active. Her legs never stop moving. In her exersaucer, on my hip or on the floor, her legs are just always going. And she's not much of a cuddle bug anymore. She really likes to be on the floor where she practices her crawling with great determination. I love her determination, but her activity level is making me nervous. :-) I'm afraid my one wild child will soon be joined by another....and I will be outnumbered when Rodney's out of town. Could make for some interesting blog posts though.

She still very much LOVES her brother. A lot of times when her legs are moving a mile a minute she is staring at Clinton with a huge grin as he is running around or running is mouth. I imagine she has big dreams of being right on his tail at any given moment of any given day.

She is really enjoying her big girl food, too. This week I made her a banana puree, an apple puree and an apple-nectarine puree. She didn't love the bananas, but sailed right through the apples and nectarines. And she's such a neat eater she doesn't even have to wear a bib. I, on the other hand, could use a bib at most meals.

Below are a few pictures of our little darling. Mother and Chelsea snapped these for me while I played "car wace" with Clinton.









Loving toboggans in August!?!?,