Kimmy is Engaged!

My little sister Kimberly came to live with us and go to college here and found Brandon. They fell in love and got engaged. They are getting married on March 16th, and Kim is counting down the days.We are so happy that Kimmy found Brando and we are now staying very busy with wedding plans. They are getting married in the Nauvoo Temple.

Brandon is a wrestler at the University here, and is a good student (at least that is what he tells us). He went on a mission to the Philippines and comes from a great family! Kim says she knew Brandon was the one the first time she saw him. They met at church in the singles branch.

Embers

Emberlyn is a happy beautiful girl. She is almost three and is as tall as most five year olds. She hit a major growth spurt this past year and went from 24 month size to 4 or 5T. She will be starting preschool on March 24th, which is the day after her birthday (I wanted her to spend her birthday with me). We have met her teacher, her new therapists, and most of the staff at her school and are excited for this new change in our lives. I am going to miss Emberlyn while she is at school, and will probably have more free time than I have had in a long time. I am sure I will find plenty of ways to fill it! I will also miss Ember's First Step therapists. Jessie and Nicole have become a part of our family and I am not ready to let them go. Fortunately, they have promised to stop by and keep in touch!

These pictures aren't real recent, but they are some of my favorites of sweet Embers.

We are working with Make-A-Wish to get a playground in our neighborhood. Since Emberlyn can't talk we had to make her wish for her. We tried to think of what Emberlyn loves the most. Her three favorite things are: being outside, swinging, and interacting with kids. So we decided that a playground we can walk to with a special swing would be what she would wish for. The Make-A-Wish reps have been amazing and are working on finding a place for the playground . We are so excited to have a place where Embers can play and leave her mark on the world! Hopefully everything will go as planned.

Princess Party

Emberlyn got invited to her first Princess party. I dressed her up and she went as Tinker Bell. I thought it was appropriate! She made an adorable princess.

The birthday girl is one of Ember's best friends. Abby is dressed as Cinderella and sitting next to Emberlyn. Abby and Emberlyn were in the same nursery class in church and Abby started paying a lot of attention to Embers. She would talk to her, and hold her hand, and show her toys. Emberlyn loves the attention and always gets excited when Abby talks to her. It is really cute to see!Emberlyn had a great time at the party and was worn out by the time she got home!

Zander Riley Bell

Zander is 5. He started Kindergarten this year and loves it. He has been learning to read and write. We have really enjoyed seeing how excited he gets when he is able to sound out a word.

Zander's favorite part about going to school is riding the bus. He rides it about an hour each way even though we only live 8 minutes from his school. He is one of the first on and one of the last off. He also LOVES P.E. and Recess.

Zander is a happy, energetic boy. He loves his baby sisters, and takes great care of them. Last night Clif and I went out, and when we came back, there was a note waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. It said, "I love Jaime and Clifton" He has been leaving the cutest notes for us.






These are a few pictures I took with our new camera. We have been having too much fun with it.

Zander's First Soccer Season Has Come To A Close

Zander just finished up his first soccer season and it was a lot of fun. Although we kind of threw him in over his head and placed him in a league with kids that had played a few other seasons and were a year older, he did really well. I thought I was going to go crazy at the first of the season watching him try and grasp the concept of being in a competative environment, but we got through it and he did really well toward the end. He even had two shots on goal in the last two games, one of which hit the poor goalie in the face, and he might have scored if he wasn't busy trying to see if the goalie was ok instead of kicking the ball again.

Zander's goalie debut. Only one goal allowed, but he didn't volunteer again after that game.

Just a couple of pictures here, I am going to try and get a video on that has a few better pictures in it.

Shady Bug

It has been a while, but I'll try again. Well since my last post, we moved to Warrensburg, Mo. A few days after we got here we found out I was pregnant, and Shayden Jancee joined our family on April 1st.

Shayden is now just over 7 months old. She is a beautiful happy baby. Shayden recently learned how to roll over, and is an expert at sitting. She loves her big brother and big sister. Zander thinks she is the coolest thing ever and is a huge help with both the girls. Emberlyn is two and a half and is getting prettier every day! She stays busy with Therapy. Embers has the best therapists! They really love her. We have a nurse that comes twice a week to play with Emberlyn and to give me a little break. Dorothy loves Embers and has become part of the family. Zander started Kindergarten this year and loves it. He comes home exhausted and excited about all the things he is learning. He is starting to learn how to read and now reads to us. Having a kindergartner is a blast! We have been so blessed!!!

I am still trying to figure out all this blog stuff. We will see how it goes.