20 week ultrasound

Baby Bell #3 at 20 weeks!  Everything looks healthy so far, and we got to see a profile, feet, hands, but the gender will remain a surprise until delivery!!  Praise God for his miracles.

Down Home on the Farm

We did family photos at the family farm last week.  Check out the complete album on our facebook page...just copy and paste below into your browser.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184853&id=696262006&l=2d291c5217

Bell Babies Invade the Studio

Lately my kiddos have tried to steal the show when I am working, and thankfully, a few sessions were for people near and dear to us that entertained the interruptions!

Here are a few fun ones...

Paige is California bound, but for now, her protege, plays copycat. 

...Jumping up from behind the posing box to surprise us!!!
Is it obvious the Bell kids were not prepared to be lens subjects? Perhaps prepared for football season, which is EVERY season at our house...
Blessed friends.  Much love to all who share in our home and our passion!

Bunny Blast from the Past

Circa 1986--Aunt Terri gave this to me from her family pictures, and my first reaction was to question why I look like I have jelly beans shoved in my cheeks?  If only that were the reason for the ones I still have now...

1999--Mac's first Easter with the Frank family.  Notice Brad and I still use the same Easter baskets. :)
2010--The Bell babes and their loot.  We will now be combatting cavities until halloween, but these were the happiest kids in the city. Thanks to one short conversation with the Mall Bunny where Macy was willing to ask for his visit to our house, but only from 10 feet away.  No lap pictures this year. 
The only picture of the kids sweet outfits from Mimi and Pop.  We'll do a photo shoot, I am sure.  Lord willling, this will be our last Easter pic as a family of 4!
Our cousin "Baby Brett" helped us find the hidden eggs at Aunt Terri's house where we all gathered for our annual Easter family lunch. 
Then off to the park for a church egg hunt and games!!!


This is a picture of all the children that participated in painting the entire head of one, very patient, Will Hogg.  

Praise God for the blessing of the Life, Death, and Resurrection that brings us all together now and for eternity.  Happy Easter!

It's a marathon, baby!

We are all so proud!!!  Mac and Brad made a pact to train and run the Little Rock half marathon and they did it!!!  They did great, and even finished under their goal time by 8 minutes.  My heart is so joyful for these guys-- whom I love more than life-- that they had these 2+ hours to make a fantastic memory together and worked so hard!  And by the way, Mac is 32 pounds lighter than he was 6 months ago, and loving his new hobby.  Macy and Canaan ask when they can watch daddy and Brad run again, and the boys are already planning the next one.  

Oh, and there was a surprise ending....

The official finish for the boys was 2 hours,  22 minutes, and 6 seconds--a pace of 10.51 minutes per mile.  
When Mac crossed the finish line, he put on a T-shirt with a message for our family.

We are expecting our third child in October 2010!!!  What a blessed day to have all of our family together and to share with each other the joys of life!!!  We have so much to be thankful for.  Praise God for our strivings, successes, families, love, and life.  Our cup runneth over. 

February

January 30th we did finally get a BIG snow and we were able to sled down our street on the kids' plastic see-saw.  Our friends and neighbors, the Burress family let us slide down their front yard too (which is also possible without snow at all) and we had a blast.  I am attaching 2 videos...

February brought another big snow on the 7th, and I was snowed-in at Hot Springs at a photography event for 3 days!!  Mac played Mr. Mom and did a fabulous job.  From what I understand, they played outside all day every day, built a snowman, and got to soak up that rare Arkansas weather.  

After watching many olympic games, Macy decided to dress the part.  Her ski sticks are curtain rods!
We took a family "stay-cation" to the Peabody hotel and watched the ducks walk.  Our kids love staying in hotels, and think they all belong to Pop.  Way to go there, Pop!  
And the second tooth is gone!!!  2 down....20 something to go.

January 2010

January 2010 was the month of firsts.  In this new decade Macy started mothers day out and we had our first snow (well, frosting) of the year!  We also met our friend Evvi Cooper for the first time.  These are some of our favorite moments.

Macy walked right in and sat down like she owned the place.  This is the same classroom Canaan was in last year at CAC, and his picture with Mrs. Beth is still on the cabinet doors.  No wonder Macy felt confident in this room.  Macy's teacher is Mrs. Dez, who is Aunt Terri's friend!  So many connections to this place!
We tried soooo hard to play in the snow...or lack of it on this particular occasion.  So, we licked ice off of a frozen bucket of water instead.  Yum.

....And made concrete frost angels...
But we got to stay home from school!!!!
This was a super fun playdate with Chase and Toni.  Chase had a boo boo on his head, so Macy fetched him a kitty cat band-aid and fashioned it to his forehead...where he left it...all day...even at "Chick o' lay".  
Macy and Jaci had fun playing in boxes when we got to visit new baby Evvi.  No pics of Evvi, unfortunately, just these two on separate days, in different boxes believe it or not. 

This month we did get to end our furniture buying spree for the house with a sleeper sofa from a furniture warehouse flood sale.  We paid 25% of the cost!