My First Christmas Letter

I don't know if this really counts as a Christmas Letter since all I am doing in posting it on to my blog but I figured it is better than nothing. :)

Greetings from the Bell Family. We have had a really good year and would love to update you on the happenings from Rexburg, ID.

It has been a year since we moved up to Rexburg and have really enjoyed our experience up here. We have had to make some adjustments since we were moving from Las Vegas and were no longer used to all the snow.
Eric has really been working hard this year on his undergrad in Accounting. He has been juggling school full time, part-time tutoring job, and his family. He has really done well in school this year as he has been studying really hard. He has really enjoyed being back up at BYU-Idaho and enjoying the wonderful spirit this school brings. He has one more year of classes up here and then he will be looking for an internship and a job. He plans on continuing in some graduate classes so he can qualify for the CPA exam. He is working part time on campus as a math tutor. Although he doesn't get paid nearly what he used to in Vegas he still loves his job and enjoys being called a "genius" almost everyday. When he is not too busy with school and work he loves just being a dad. He looks forward to coming home and seeing Aaron and playing with him.

I have had a year full of ups and downs. In January I accepted a job as a dorm manager. We live in the dorm with 120 other girls. It has been a challenged to be on-call 24/7 however I enjoy the opportunity to work and stay home with Aaron. My job consists of working 4 office hours each day and being available when problems arise. There are some quiet weeks and there are some weeks when everyone is about to kill their roommate and I try to convince them to get along. However, I really enjoy my interaction with each of the girls and I am learning so much from these girls. I have seen myself grow because of them. I also had the opportunity to take a couple of classes on campus. I just finished my clothing construction class and I was able to learn how to make pants, shirts, and skirts. I learned from the whole experience that it is cheaper and easier to just buy the clothes at the store instead of making them myself. I love learning how to sew and plan on developing that skill in the future. The best part of each of my day is being a mom and watching Aaron grow up and learn. I love to see him laugh and play. I am so grateful that I can be home with him and learn how to be a good mom. I am learning as I go so I know I am not doing everything right but I love to figure it out.

Aaron is now 17months old and is looking forward to nursery in church in January(well he has no idea but mom and dad are looking forward to it). He is getting so smart each day. I am shocked almost everyday when he learns something new. He definitely knows what he likes and what he doesn't like. Things we have discovered that he loves are his green blanket(he drags it everywhere), his Binky, his favorite show is Elmo's World, his favorite toy is the stacking cups (he can stack all 10 cups without any help), his favorite foods are green beans, peaches, taquitos, and milk. He also loves to play with balls. "Ball" was his first official word. He can't say much else yet but he is trying and mimics us when we talk. He does play around with different sounds. He loves it when mommy sings to him to calm him down. His favorite song right now is "Popcorn popping" because he loves the hand motions to that song. He is one happy boy and brings a smile to his parents faces everyday.

Baby Bell is just relaxing and growing in mommy's tummy. I am 4 1/2 months along (halfway there). The baby is scheduled to make an appearance some time around May 9th. We find out if the baby is a boy or a girl on January 8th so come back to the blog then to find out. We are so excited to have another little spirit join our family.

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope you all have had a good year. I look back over the last year and find myself grateful for the many blessings we have been given. I love this time of year when we can reflect on the life of Christ and celebrate his birth and life. He was a great example to me and I try to live everyday for and in behalf of him. I am truly grateful for all that he has done for me and my family.

More from Texas

Friday after Thanksgiving we had a big family outing to Jump X-treme. It was an old Walmart filled with lots of blow up slides. The kids and adults all had a blast. We had it rented out for our family for 2 hours. Aaron had as much fun as he could. We had to get him used to walking on these things since they were not sturdy at all. He had a lot of fun bouncing around.

Eric and Aaron are on the outside looking in on all the fun.

Aaron loved to get in and play with the balls. I think that was his favorite part.

They had a few toys for the little kids too.

The big boys had a race climbing up the steep steps and sliding down. They all went around five times as fast as the could. I don't think all of them finished because they wore themselves out. They all had to rest for a few minutes to catch their breath.

Charles got a little rip in his pants in the knee at the beginning of the day. By the time we left jump x-treme it was a big rip. He then started to rip it more until he accidentally ripped his pants a little too high. :)
Family Picture

Aaron and his cousins on the Bell side. There are 17 grandkids and will be 18 in may. The grandkids range from 14years to 3 months old. As you can see Aaron wasn't too happy being held by anyone other than his mom or dad.

Earlier in the day Eric got to go shooting guns with his dad and brothers.

Thanksgiving Day

We had a great Thanksgiving day. There was a lot of good food and a lot of people. As I said in my previous post, we had a family reunion for Thanksgiving. There are eight kids in Eric's family and all of them and their families were there with the exception of Eric's brother and brother in law who were both out of town for work. Eric's parents also have the missionaries living with them so there were four extra grown boys there to help eat the food. :)
We fed the kids first and then sent them to watch a movie while the grown-ups ate. It was a tight fit around the table but it was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, Aaron didn't get to enjoy his thanksgiving dinner. When we arrived to Texas Aaron got sick and didn't really eat much for days. We think it was from the stress of traveling and lack of sleep. He had a fever for two days and was miserable in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people. It basically took him until the end of the trip for him to warm up to some people and eat a decent meal.
We had 18 pies for Thanksgiving. Eric's mom made most of them and his brother Rob made the rest. They were really good and it was great to have pie leftovers for a couple of days.

We all got to go outside and enjoy the weather on Thanksgiving day and play a few games outside. It was hard on me because I am out of shape and couldn't run very much. We still had fun playing kick ball and spud.

Sugar

Last Christmas we had to give up our dog, Sugar, because we were moving in to the dorms and they don't allow pets. Eric's parents have been so great to dog sit for us. I was so excited to see my "first born" as my mother in law would say. She was really excited to see us. I am positive that she remembered us from the moment we walked in. She would follow us around. It was so hard to leave her again. Hopefully we can get her back in a year when we leave Rexburg.

Aaron had fun playing with his cousins although he was very clingy to us because there were a lot of people he didn't know. He prefered to play by himself a lot of the time.
Here we are playing with his stacking cups. Notice my pregnant belly is starting to show. I am 4 months along now. :)

Eric playing ping pong and feeling rather confident.

Having fun in Texas

We had the opportunity to go to Weatherford , TX for our Thanksgiving Break. Eric had the whole week off from school so we thought it would be a good time to go visit his family. Some how from that idea we created a family reunion and everyone else came out too. It was a lot of fun to see everyone. It had been over 2 years since I had last been there and seen some of the family. Eric went Summer 07 for his dad's birthday but I was stuck at home because I was 8 months pregnant. The first few days we were there were on the calm side since mostly everyone didn't get there until wednesday.
We took the kids out to the park and they had a blast. Aaron was still too small for the fun stuff but he still enjoyed himself on the swings and slide.

Aaron really enjoyed swinging with me. Every time I put him down he wanted back up.

Here is Charles pushing Taneal and Cami on this pole that twists around.

This was the kids favorite part of the park. I am amazed how those kids just hung on. I tried it and I couldn't make it around once without letting go.

Aaron loves the slide. He would go down and then climb back up for another turn. He still needs someone at top to push him and someone at bottom to catch.

Here is Aaron and his cousin Spencer swinging together. Spencer is just a year older than Aaron. They played a little bit together over the week but I think they need more time to mature.