Making Alyssa Laugh

One of Ivy's favorite things to do is to try to make Alyssa laugh...

Introducing Alyssa Marie

Our family received the most wonderful and amazing Christmas present this year. Her name is Alyssa Marie and she is 10 months old. We found out about Alyssa on the 16th, traveled to North Carolina on the 20th, and were able to return home with Alyssa on Christmas day.

She is so beautiful and sweet. We feel so blessed to have her in our family.

This was Christmas Eve. The kids are holding presents from uncle Russ and aunt Judi. They live about 4 hours away from Charlotte and drove all the way to be with us during the holidays and for this exciting week.

Aunt Judi brought a little Christmas tree with her when she came up, and the kids had a great time decorating it with bows and ribbons.

Alyssa loves to smile and laugh

Judi with Alyssa

Luke could not get enough of Russ' iPhone

We went to the mall in Charlotte 2 days before Christmas and got pictures taken with Santa. Ivy and Luke were both VERY excited, but Alyssa was a little unsure about the whole situation.

Ivy and Luke waiting in line to see Santa

Their reaction when they first saw Santa. When we pulled Ivy off Santa's lap, she was still talking as fast as she could, trying to get out all the things she wanted for Christmas.
This was the fist time we had ventured out with all three kids. Thanks goodness Judi was there to help :)!

Bell Family Christmas Party

Joshua and Emily hosted the Bell Family Christmas Party this year. It was tons of fun, and a lot of DELICIOUS food.



This is Mikal's (Emily's sister) little daughter, Emily.

Luke's 3rd Birthday!!!

Myself and the kids were all pretty sick on Luke's birthday, but we really wanted to do more than just give him presents, so in the evening we went over to the Pirate restaurant for dinner. The kids loved it, and Uncle Mike won 150 tickets with 1 token. Amazing!!

Luke had just learned how to hold up 3 fingers to tell how old he was.

Coloring and Puzzles with cousin Lola

We got to babysit Ivy and Luke's cousin Ryan Lola the beginning of December. She has been so fun and sweet. We can't wait to get back and play with her some more!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today (October 22nd, 2008) Rick, Ivy, and I left for China to pick up baby Luke. We can't imagine our lives without him.

Here is a cute video we took earlier this month of him dancing. He is getting so good on his foot! He had already been dancing for about 10 minutes before we starting making this, so he was getting tired by this point :).

In The Month of September...

Garage Time

When the weather is too cold to play outside, we move the car out of the garage and play with the bikes and sidewalk chalk in there.

CARNIVAL AT LANDON'S SCHOOL

Landon's elementary school had a fall carnival that we got to go to.
This is Landon throwing a basketball at the dunking booth.

Luke playing a game with daddy

Ivy getting a butterfly painted on her face.

Ivy and Luke with Captain Jack Sparrow on the pirate ship

FUN AT THE PETTING ZOO

Luke was a very interested in how the cows were milked. He couldn't look away the whole time.



Ivy found all the toy horses and lined them up in a row. She does this at toy stores and at homes, whenever she has a lot of horses, she loves to line them all up and just look at them.

This is Ivy's friend, Alli. Alli's two

brothers and mom came with us to

Ivy and Luke got to see some of the animals being fed on this day. Here is a picture of the baby cow being fed a bottle of milk.





GOOD-BYE TO MORE COUSINS...

Just when we were getting used to Uillame, Katie, and Rhyen moving out of state, James, Joni, Kaitlyn, Ella, and Andrew moved to Las Vegas the beginning of September. Ivy and Luke miss them so much! Rick keeps telling us we need to go down to Vegas and visit them, so hopefully we will see you guys again soon!

Lizzie is here!!!!!!

Little Lizzie (Elizabeth Sharon) was born in September 4th. She is such a beautiful baby! Luke and Ivy love seeing her when Kyndra and Mike come over during one of their walks in the evening.


















This was the day Lizzie came home from the hospital with Kyndra. Ivy wore a mask so her "big girl" germs wouldn't get on her baby cousin.

Hogle Zoo

We went to Hogle Zoo the weekend before Rick started school. The kids loved it (even though they are not smiling in any of the pics).

Sleeping Gorilla

Tiger in the back ground

Lazy bear

Rino

Turtles