Christmas card 2010

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Firefighter Eve

I just love Bloomington and all the great opportunities and activities for families. Already this week we enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake Festival on the Square, had playtime at the Banneker Center and then tonight went to family night at the SRSC (IU student sports center). They host a family night once a month and this month had a safety theme. The kids got to see a fire truck and police car up close.

Firefighter Holly showed us all about fire safety. It was pretty basic, but good for the kids to see up-close a dressed fire fighter. At the end of the talk, they had the kids crawl out the back of the "house" and out the window to the firefighter. Deacon was adorable during the talk, he was able to answer all the questions about what to do if there was a fire. He even knew to "stop, drop, and roll"! Rebekah told the firefighter that she looked like a pig when she put on the gas mask :)

I just thought these were adorable pictures of Eve! She loved the hat!

basement is ready for guests! come and visit!

Alright all you family and friends out there: if you don't already live in Bloomington, we want to have you come and visit us! We miss you all and would love to have you over. Bloomington is a beautiful place and right now we have our lovely tulips in full bloom.

If these blooming flowers have got you excited about visiting, then you will be very impressed with the new bathroom/sleeping area for our guests. Randy has worked hard the last 3+ years (with a little help from me and lots of help from some great friends and family) at finishing the basement. It now has a full bathroom.

A barn (with some butterflies and flowers coming soon to the walls)

Lots of room for toys!

Comfy area for watching TV and a bed in the Cardinal's corner!

And we can't forget about the great IU corner. (yes, there are multiple themes in the one large room)

I do have to say that Randy is pretty amazing! And we really would like to have some more guests over to see us!

bye-bye tv

Last Saturday our neighborhood had a porch sale and we decided to put out our tv and tv stand up for sale. For some time we have been thinking and talking about becoming a one tv family with the tv in the basement and getting rid of the one in the main floor living room. And we did it! A nice older man purchased the tv for $20 and a young lady took the stand for a big $6! In all, we made $165 at the sale, not too bad! The next question then is how do we rearrange the furniture in the living room? I actually had no idea what to do, but felt it was just very messy looking. This really is not my area of expertise, so I am really impressed with how it turned out.
Up top is a picture of the room looking towards the front door. The tv was in the left side corner and the benches are in the room because I had used them to display stuff at the garage sale.

Here is the other side of the room. The first thing that you usually notice about the room is the large bin of toys and stacks of books.

Here are some after pictures! I originally thought that I would need to go out and buy some more furniture. Randy then reminded me (nicely of course) that we are trying to save money to some day add on to the back of the house. So, I am happy to say, all I spent was $35 on the 4 ottomans. The two larger ottomans also serve as shoe hiders for the girls!

The room looks so much bigger and welcoming. I love the fact that there is a place for books instead of the floor and that the toys have there own corner on the other side of the couch. Also notice my great location for hiding the diapers and wipes! The only thing I think we could still use is a chair next to the bookshelf. I am going to keep my eyes open for any deals or garage sales.

Maggie seems to like the new room layout too!

monday's

Monday's are hard. The girls get adjusted to Randy being home for the weekend, so when he leaves for work on Monday, they aren't too happy. Put that together with having family over this weekend and then the girls are super sad.

With that being said, we did have a great day! Here are some random "things" about our day:

• When Randy left this morning, Eve watched out the back door waving and clearly saying "bye bye daddy." Too cute!
• The girls doing the motions to the book "Little Bunny Foo Foo". I think Lydia now calls all bunnies "foo foo".
• After a time out for hitting Eve with a plastic place-mat, I talked it over with Rebekah. I explained how I was sad because of her actions and that Eve, who was crying was sad as well. In her defense, Rebekah explained that she was sad too because I put her in time-out!
• After dinner, Randy was doing the dishes and I was wiping down the table and getting the rice-a-roni out of the girls seats when we were attacked by three wild tigers! Rebekah took a clean towel out of the laundry (at least it wasn't folded yet), wrapped it around herself and ran around the room growling like a tiger. Lydia and Eve then also proceeded to take additional towels out of the laundry basket and followed their sister. They were just plain silly--circling around the kitchen with towels and roaring (and giggling).
• Randy had his first softball game of the year and started off with 3 hits tonight!! It was a late game, so we weren't able to go cheer him on, but hope to make it to his early games. I have my first softball game on Thursday this week!

Phillip's Foursome

What is better than taking a walk to the Farmer's Market on a beautiful Saturday morning? How about taking a walk to the farmer's market with my sister Kelly, brother-in-law Kurt, and their little boys, Harrison and Rowan!

Here are the dads with strollers loaded up with kids, yes that is 5 grandchildren all under 3! With Kelly being pregnant and then having Rowan, they haven't made it down to visit in awhile. It was wonderful to have them!
After the Farmer's market we grilled out for lunch before heading to cheer on IU Football with the spring scrimmage game. Beforehand we got to run around on the field. Isn't Eve adorable with the ball?
We also met up with the Peterman's and Beaver's to eat, enjoy the festivities and then watch the first quarter of the game before the kids got too restless.

5 kids in one tub! It can be done. 5 kids looking at the camera and smiling...impossible!
I would love to say Rebekah and Harrison got along this good all weekend long...they do love each other very much and did have a great time together. I think Rebekah may have even talked Harrison into coming to IU to play football in college!
Sunday after church we headed up to the Indy zoo. Here was the attempted family picture. Lydia is having a fit here.
Group picture of the kids at the end of the zoo trip. Poor Lydia still having a fit. Great times with family!

Arnold Family Birthdays

Happy birthday to Natalie (6) and Morgan (9)! We had a great time with family in St. Louis celebrating birthdays a few weekends ago. Hopefully we will make it out again sometime this summer to catch a Cardinal's game too!

Madi and Megan are working hard on their butterflies. Randy cut out wooden butterflies and now has had all the nieces (except Allie), paint a butterfly for our basement barn-themed wall. I will have to post some pictures after they are all hung up!

The girls sure do love their cousins. Here is Anna and Eve.

Check out those french braids on Natalie and Rebekah! Yes, I did them myself and am actually quite proud of my new skill. I figure with three little girls, I better learn to french braid. Rebekah usually will sit still if Elmo's World is on tv and if she gets a treat.
Have I mentioned yet how much Rebekah loves her cousin Will? Well, she sure does! She will ask to have her hands washed so she can hold him. She does a great job and has started asking me if I have a baby in my tummy...poor girl will have to wait a little longer!

Happy Easter

(I started this post on Easter...now it is a few weeks post Easter and I am just coming back to finish it up. I am enjoying this blogging, but things seem to take some time for me to get around to. If you don't mind it a little late, read on...)

Here is a look back at Easter 2009, Rebekah was 20 months and Eve and Lydia were 5 months old. Wow have they gotten so big this last year.

I really did try to get a picture of all three girls (looking and smiling) in their beautiful Easter dresses from Nana (she also provided the shoes, socks and hats). To see the hats and the more attempts at getting a picture all together you will have to see my Picasa April 2010 album. After several picture attempts, I just gave up and took a short video, which I can't get to load here, so you will have to see it on Picasa.

Note to self for next year: Take Easter picture of girls in the morning before eating, egg hunting, and tired, ready for naps with dirty dresses and messed up hair.

The girls really enjoyed finding Easter eggs and really the candy in the Easter eggs. Lydia would hold up an egg and ask to "up" for "open up". Wow, they love candy. This is great fun and we enjoyed finding Easter eggs downtown on the square on Saturday with the Petermans--Deacon is an excellent egg hunter too! And we also enjoyed a egg hunt at the Bauman's house on Sunday. Easter eggs and candy are fairly easy concepts to understand. Even Lydia and Eve without much instruction could pick up their baskets and put eggs into them. I do need to note that Eve will also put in pinecones and the sharp prickly gumballs that fall from tree into her basket as well.

Eggs are fun, candy is delicious, but Christ has risen and this mystery of his suffering, death, and resurrection is something to contemplate all year long! Christ has Risen, Christ has Risen Indeed! While eating our breakfast on Easter morning, I took the computer to the table and played the song, "He's Alive" by Don Franciso (you can find it on utube). This song has special meaning to me and I hope my girls will enjoy the tradition of having it played as loud as possible on Easter morning. My parent used to wake us kids up with this song being played loudly on their record player (yes, I am that old!).

Potty Training

Potty training time really hasn't begun in the Arnold household. Rebekah had a week in January where she wanted to sit on the potty, but since then hasn't even wanted to try. She totally understands what to do and she really understands the incentives we have been offering (various candy and ice cream). Today I even told her that after we say bye-bye diapers, she can go to Build a Bear and pick out her favorite bear (she just discovered this store in the mall and we walked in and looked around). She has even started requesting diaper changes after pooping in her diaper...but still shows no signs of wanting to try. She even loves cheering on her good friend Elise Erwin who has been potty trained now for months--go Elise!!

So today, Lydia at 16 months carried the potty seat out of the bathroom and brought it to me. I asked if she wanted to sit on it and she nodded. She was loving it and then Eve wanted in on it too. Who knows, maybe Eve and Lydia will beat Rebekah in the potty training. Enjoy these great pictures of some proud little girls...they did sit on the potty, but we are still waiting for any action to occur! We had a repeat of this afternoon potty adventure after baths tonight, we had to pull the girls away from the potty.

Rebekah time

I have been enjoying lots of special time this spring with my little Rebekah. Eve and Lydia have been taking pretty consistent morning and afternoon naps and Rebekah is only taking an afternoon nap about 50% of the time. This is leaving lots of time for the two of us.

So far, I have been surprised on (Rebekah wants to type: lkujhgf6yp;;ii;lklkkjhbc0000000000000000000000000000000000000) how much Rebekah is loving the outdoors and enjoying God's beautiful creation all around her. She is loving all the spring flowers like the bright yellow daffodils we have in our front year. Picking up sticks, bugs, coloring with sidewalk chalk is taking up much of our days. It is a joy to watch and participate in her discovery of all things new!

We have had several Rebekah "meltdowns" the last few weeks. Over silly things like she was hiding under the table after lunch playing house. I went down to try to wash her face and pretended to push the door bell on her make believe house and she just lost it. "Don't push the door bell" she screamed as she laid on the floor yelling and kicking...after I tried explaining I was just pretending and that I wouldn't push it again, she just kept going and going. After 3-4 of the meltdowns per day for a few days in a row, I was going to loose it. Ignoring her tantrum just wasn't cutting it, so I devised a little plan...yes it is bribery. After three days of no meltdowns, I told Rebekah that we would go to the new Candy Store downtown, Campus Candy. In four days, she managed to collect 3 stickers, and got to have a special treat. Here are some pictures of the new candy store, pretty impressive. She got a few smarties and some gummy letters. We also shared a small frozen yogurt and then enjoyed some of the downtown flowers. I wish I could say the meltdowns have stopped, but they still are continuing...any other suggestions out there?

Current Life

Before I share the fact that we have a blog, it may be nice to give an overview of where we are in this crazy wonderful life with three little girls.

Rebekah is currently 2 1/2. If you ask her how old she is she will say "I'm two, but at my next birthday, I will be 3!" She is so looking forward to having a birthday party, I keep explaining that August is still a few months away. She just loves celebrating birthdays and anything else she can get treats for. She is also very sweet on babies. She is so in love with her two little cousins, Rowan and Will.

Rebekah and Will (born in March 2010)

Rebekah and Rowan (born in Nov 2009)

Lydia and Eve are 16 months old. To be honest, the last year or so has been a little bit of a blur. But we are sleeping mostly through the night (or at least I get to, Randy hears the girls first and will get up if they need binkies put back in or if Rebekah needs to be re-tucked in..he is wonderful about letting me sleep!) The girls are at such a fun age. They are super mobile and can be found giving lots of open mouth kisses and hugs. They repeat almost anything you want them too. Eve is loving Elmo and calls him "Melmo" just like Rebekah used to. You can see from the picture below, that Eve can eat some cake! She has a huge sweet tooth, I am sure she gets it from me! She is a sweet little thing herself! I have already been impressed with her ball kicking skills--she may be our little athlete, but who knows.

Our sweet Eve
"more cupcakes please"

Lydia has picked up on the word "No" and drops her milk cup on the floor and then adds in the "no" before we can even say it. She is such a little ham--as annoying as throwing the milk on the floor is, she just makes you smile. One of our favorite Lydia tricks is her blinking ability, although we have about a 50% success rate when we ask her to do it on command for an audience.

A typical Lydia picture: hat on head, silly expression, and climbing on something.

Another great Lydia photo--here she knew she was being funny...turning her bib around and stuffing her bagel in her mouth.

It is amazing how much you can love three little blessings--even when your day is filled with cleaning, feeding, changing, and refereeing 3 little monkeys!