Waking Up Right

This morning after I helped Arden get dressed I couldn't find her. I promise I don't lose my child in the house but she is always finding new places to hang out.

I went into our room and I found her in our bed reading her bible. She looked at me and said "Hi" and kept on reading.

A Love for the Word

Today Arden and I were heading out for our bible study and Arden told me that she wanted to take her bible. We've really never given her bible to play with but I thought OK...I'll hand her the bible she received at her baby dedication thinking she would put it in her purse and that would be the end of it.

I was wrong. She held on to her bible flipping through it all the way there. She put it in her bag and took it into the group. At the end of our time she comes running in with her bible in her hand. Apparently she read and played with it the entire time.

On the way home she told me that she wanted to read her bible and she again flipped through it until she feel asleep.

Tonight just before bed we were reading bedtime stories and before she climbed in bed she ran and got her bible. She laid down and hugged her bible tight and feel asleep holding it. She has taking such a great job of being careful with it.

I pray that she always has a love for the Word of God.

Here a picture I captured of her once we got home with her asleep in the car holding her bible.

Getting Ready

We have been getting our baby items out of storage in preparation of the arrival of the baby. Arden has loved everything. She thinks they are for her babies. She especially likes the swing. If I can't find her I just go to the baby's room and find her either putting her baby down for a nap or swinging her in the swing.

I think she's ready to be a big sister.

A Heart Like Hers

This evening Arden and I headed to the mall to get out of the house for a little while. We just walked through looking at things and she loved watching the dancing water fountain. When the water was high Arden would stand up and when it would go really low she would bend down.

We then went to Pottery Barn Kids so she could play with the toys in there for a little while...which just happens to be one of her favorite things to do at the mall. While we were there she found a shopping cart and a baby. She put the baby in the shopping card and pushed it around looking at various things in the store.

After about 10 minutes a little girl came in and she was very quiet and was playing near Arden with a baby stroller. The little girl saw the baby in Arden's cart and said to nobody in particular "I would like a baby." She was about 15-20 feet from Arden. I just sat there and watch Arden play.

Arden then takes the baby out of her cart and walks over to the little girl and puts the baby in the stroller and says "There you go."

It was such a proud moment as a parent to watch your child share with a stranger without being prompted. The little girl was with her grandmother and she was shocked that Arden shared without even being asked. She (the grandmother) kept thanking Arden over and over again.

Arden then waved bye to the girl and went and found something else to play with and we left a few minutes later. I must say that I just had to brag on my girl because I am very proud of her.

A Heavy Purse

The other day after Arden told Dave to be careful with her purse because it was heavy. I had to investigate. I know that you are never supposed to go through a woman's purse but I had to see what the fuss was all about. As I opened up her purse this is what I found.

If you can't tell there are three cell phones in there. I have a feeling that she is going to either be very tech savy or a multi-tasker with a high powered job some day.

Here's a picture of her with her purse that morning.

Question of the Week

Why does it take so long to organize closets?

Overheard

Arden: "Daddy, be careful it's very hea-be (heavy)." Talking about her purse.

Arden: "Mommy, this is good. I love chocolate." Referring to the sweet potato she was eating for dinner.

Arden: "Jesus, thank you for mommy, daddy, baby brother, mac and cheese and snow." Arden praying over our dinner on Tuesday when it snowed.

A Do

Arden doesn't always like to have her hair up but the past couple of days she's let me pull her hair back. She likes the two pony tails instead of one. I hope she continues to let me pull it up. She's pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Cinderella

Back in August Arden received a birthday card from my Aunt Bonnie of Cinderella singing. Arden loves the card and keeps it with her books. She will still pull it out and read it and let Cinderella serenade her over and over.

Well a couple of days ago Arden made the connection that the princess on her underware is the same princess that sings to her. Ever since then the princess underware has stayed dry and clean.

Whatever it takes...I'm just so happy to hear her say throughout the day "Princess is dry and clean."

A Winter Wonderland

We finally got a little bit of snow here yesterday about 2 inches. Arden was up at 6 am and by 6:45 she already had breakfast and was outside in the snow playing with her daddy. They had a great time. We don't have a sled so Dave improvised with a large cardboard box. Our neighbors came over around 7:30 with a sled and Arden just couldn't get enough. They finally came in around 8 am so Dave could go to work. It was really fun watching them play.

Arden started crying when she came inside because she wanted to stay out all day. I made her some warm apple cider and helped her to get toasty warm again. It was a great morning. Too bad the snow melted by the afternoon.

My House

As soon as we pull into our neighborhood Arden starts pointing at different houses and asked "Is that my house" and answers herself "no". She does this all the way until we get to our house. When get to our house she asks the same question but this time responds "yes". It's becoming quiet comical.

At least I know she can make her way home.

Question of the Week

How is that my little girl is now old enough to lay in the floor and paint without me having to watch her so closely and that in 2 months she will have a little brother?

Multi-tasking

Arden is learning to multi-task. Not only does she take her baby for a walk in the stroller she now takes her dog with her.

Please disregard the mess...we are in the middle of painting this area of our house....

An Early Valentine's Gift

Arden received an early Valentine's gift the mail.

Gran Gran sent her a box of Sweethearts which she at all of them throughout the day. She is still asking for hearts to eat.

Brining The Outside In

This winter has been a cold one and we have not been outside nearly enough. So Arden has to become creative in getting her exercise. She has created a loop in through the living room into the kitchen and she is getting really good a moving her tricycle through her loop.

The best part is when she puts her helmet on herself. It doesn't always end up on correctly but that doesn't stop her.

True Colors

Arden is having a hard time remembering her colors. There for a while everything was blue, then red and now green. I was starting to wonder if she was colorblind. So I got a great idea from Parents magazine to use paint samples as a memory game.

So I headed to a local hardware store and picked up some fun paint chips in the primary colors. I place them out and asked her to find the ones that were alike. The first try she made a few mistakes but now she is a pro. She asks everyday to play her new game. She will play it several times a couple of times in a row. So she's not colorblind...however, she's still having problems matching the names with the colors. I'm sure that it will come. If anyone has any great suggestions on how to help her remember the color names I would love to hear them.

That Was Easy

Arden had a successful morning of potty training and then between 11 and 12 we had 3 major accidents. I couldn't believe it...3 within an hour. 2 easy to fix accidents and one that was not so easy.

Finally around 1 pm she had a successful potty...that let's just say that if she would have had an accident, this one would have made me want to scream...After she was finished she looked up at me and proclaimed:

"That was easy!"

I just hope she remembers how easy it really is.

Question of the Week

Why is it that all of the cartoon animals can talk except for the dog? Micky is a mouse and his friends Donald is a duck and they talk but not Pluto? On Word World, the frog, duck, sheep, pig, bear, bugs, shark and every animal except the dog talk. Why is that?

Feeling Much Better

This is how I knew that Arden was over her stomach bug.

Arden walked into my room as serious as could be and walked up to me and whispered "look at me." I was working at the time and it was all I could do to keep from laughing. Dave whisked her away and captured the look on camera.

At that moment I knew that Arden was feeling much, much better.

The Last Gift of Christmas

Arden received her last Christmas gift of the year the other day. My friend Jen sent it to her and Arden just loved it. It is a Little People Nativity Set. Arden now has her own nativity set to play with instead of being tempted with the nice set.

Once she realized what it was she started screaming "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!" She was so excited! She played with it this week but it is going up in the attic tomorrow to join the rest of the Christmas items. What a great gift for her.

Her are some great pictures of her opening up her Nativity Set. Thanks Jen. She loves it.

A Star is Born

Laura is making blogging for me really easy...she uploaded two videos of Arden singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Happy Birthday. They are too funny and only about 20 seconds each.

They are not your normal version of of either song. I would like to call them Elevation style songs. Our church likes to changes hymns and praise songs to be a little more rock and roll and that's what Arden did with these songs.

Click here to watch them.

I Love Barney

Yes, you read that right. I have decided that I love that purple dinosaur. Let me tell you why. I normally tune out the show and occupy myself while Arden watches him but I do not miss the last 2 minutes of the show.

The last 2 minutes of the show he sings the I Love You song. It is at this point Arden will stop whatever she is doing and run over to me. She wants me to pick her up and she hugs me as hard as she cans and says "I lovve you Mommy" and gives me a kiss.

Let me tell you it doesn't get any better than that.

Day 5

Today is day 5 of one of us not feeling well. Arden woke up sick again in the middle of the night. She was able to go back to sleep and sleep all night long. Dave and I feeling much better but want a full night of sleep.

So off to bed and hopefully I will have a healthy and happy family in the morning.

The Answer

I wanted to post the answer to my Question of the Week. I can tell you from first hand experience what's worse than waking up with the stomach bug...being 7 1/2 months pregnant and the worst part...your husband waking up at the same time with the same stomach bug.

It was horrible. As soon as Dave got up to help me...he realized that he wasn't feeling well either. So when Arden woke up we decided that it was best for me to get sleep and rest since I am pregnant and still sick. Dave was a trooper laying on the couch all day watching Arden's video's and playing as much as he could with her even though he felt terrible. He was so excited for her nap time. She took a great nap for us and slept 3 and half hours.

After the nap Dave was still feeling bad and so was I...so he headed back downstairs to take care of Arden. Around 7 pm I started feeling better so I ventured downstairs to get something to eat (I had held down fluids for 2 hours at that point) and he then headed up to bed.

Arden greeted me with "Good morning Mommy" when I came downstairs. I thought this was going to be interesting explaining to her that she was getting ready to go to bed. We watched America's Funniest Home Videos together and then off to bed a few minutes later.

This morning Dave and I still woke up feeling weak but were both able to get through the day and will hopefully be back to normal tomorrow.

Question of the Week

What's worse than waking up with the stomach bug?

Purging

Today Dave and I decided to get rid of things we don't use in our house. We rearranged some of the rooms in our house and it seemed like the natural thing to do.

The first four years of our marriage we moved about every other year so this was naturally done as we packed. We thought it would be a great idea before the baby arrived to clean our house from top to bottom. Arden is enjoying looking through our things and asking what's this? or taking things out of boxes and doing her own sorting.

We spent most of the day working and will continue this project tomorrow. I know that we've made a lot of progress but it still seems like there is a lot to do. I can't wait for the finished results.

Sharing wiht Uncle Tim

The other day we went to the mall. After some shopping we decided to have some Chick-fil-A. Tim and Arden shared a milkshake. The picture is priceless. You have to view the picture here I wasn't able to get it downloaded on my computer.