For Christmas, Grandma Patti bought Arabella a "Me and My Dolly" outfit set.  Bella commented at the time that maybe Nugget could wear the dolly outfit.  We all laughed and remembered how little Bella was as a baby... little did I know that I would have another tiny baby! 

Arabella was delighted that she got to match her sister!  I guess I should start looking for more matching outfits for the girls. 

Spring Break 2012

Arabella, Alivia, and I went to Sioux City to spend the week with my parents.  We had a blast! The weather was unusually beautiful and we spent lots of time outside. 

Rollerblading with new (and really big) elbow and knee pads at Grandma's house

 Arabella even got to wear her new swimsuit and play in the sprinkler with her friend Kaylee.  I can't believe we had nice enough weather to run through the sprinkler in March!!!  Crazy Iowa weather...

 Showing me her Popsicle mustache (I know you can't really see it, but she was insistent that it was there!)

 This picture was actually taken in WDM before we left on Friday (note the long sleeves and jeans).  She told me she and Rosie (her doll) wanted to go write in her journal about nature.  When I looked in her journal later, it said "BRDS   GRAS  SUN" and I felt so proud of my little writer!

 Reading extra bedtime stories to both of my girls = the perfect way to spend my evenings!

 Alivia even got to meet her Great Gramma Alice! 

 

Alivia is One Month Old!

I can hardly believe it's already been one month!  It seems like just yesterday we went to the hospital to meet our sweet girl.  Alivia is already showing us how different she is from her sister.  She eats differently, sleeps differently, and acts differently. 

At 1 Month:

* weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces... this is not as much as her pediatrician would like her to weigh, so we're working on helping Livi gain weight.  She eats like a champ, just spits lots of it back up!

 * wears newborn size clothes and diapers... I'm excited for her to grow so she can wear some of the cute outfits we have in 0-3 month sizes! 

* has deep blue eyes and she's just starting to really look at you when you hold her.  She'll look at you intently as you talk or sing to her and you can tell she loves to listen!

* sleeps for 4 hours stretches at night.  Mommy wishes they were 5 or 6 hour stretches, but 4 hours is better than 3! 

* loves to be sung to... especially if her sister is the singer... if Livi is crying and Arabella starts to sing to her, Livi stops crying.  It's amazing!

  * loves to be outside and go for walks in the carrier.  We've been lucky to have beautiful weather lately and Alivia and I have been taking full advantage of it. 

 

God has truly blessed us with our sweet Alivia Jean.

Sisterly Love

Arabella is so good with her sister.  I cannot believe how much she loves Alivia.  

Arabella prays for her sister... kisses her sister... worries about her sister... reads to her sister... sings to her sister... tickles her sister... tells stories to her sister... protects her sister... and more.

I can only hope she continues to feel this way about Alivia as she continues to grow and change.

Can you figure out which baby is which?  One of these pictures is Arabella at one week old.  The other picture is Alivia at one week old.  Which baby is which?  Comment with your guess!

Picture A

Picture B

"I'll never let anyone have you. You are MY baby sister!"

 Arabella absolutely loves her baby sister.  Anyone that asks how she likes her sister she just smiles and say she likes her... but one day someone said to Alivia, "Oh you're just so sweet I could take you home with me!"  That visitor left and Arabella immediately went over to her baby sister who was laying in her swing and said, "I'll never let anyone have you.  You are MY baby sister!"

Such a proud big sister

"Mommy, Livi bit me!        Just joking, she's too little to bite!"

I love love LOVE this picture of my girls.  Arabella is absolutely smitten with her baby sister... and I'm quite sure Alivia feels exactly the same!

Announcing Our Newest Addition!

Alivia Jean Leighton was born at 7:08 PM on Wednesday February 22, 2012.

She weighed exactly 7 pounds and was 19.5 inches.  

Alivia is perfect and we couldn't be happier to have her home with us.

"I'm Going To Have A Baby Sister!"

This is what Arabella tells everyone... and I mean everyone... the lady behind us in line at the grocery store, the pediatrician, the couple that we pass as we walk outside in our neighborhood.  "I'm going to have a baby sister!"  I'm so glad she is excited!  

Every morning she crawls into bed with Dave and I and she pulls up my shirt and sings a song to the baby... who was affectionately nicknamed "Nugget" (by Arabella of course who saw her baby sister on the sonagram and said, "It doesn't look like a baby.  It looks like a chicken nugget.").  The baby moves when Arabella sings to her... she already knows her big sister's voice.  It amazes me!   Arabella is going to be a wonderful big sister.  

I didn't take very many pictures during this pregnancy, but I love this one!

Happy Valentine's Day

After realizing that this is the last year that we don't have to make a classroom full of valentines (OMG my baby is going to kindergarten next year!!!!!) I decided to bite the bullet and make handmade valentines.  Did some heavy duty research on Pinterest and decided to make butterfly valentines for Arabella's friends at daycare.  They turned out so cute!  She worked really hard at the cutting (that's a lot of cutting for little hands), but she was adamant that these are her valentines and she should be the one to do all the work!  Once we were done cutting, we had a little mini-lesson on symmetry and then worked really hard making each butterfly symmetrical with stickers. 

Aren't they cute?!

A few days later, she made super special valentines for Dave and I all on her own with no help.  

This one was made for Dave.  It says, "You are my love." and she cut the shapes out on her own too.  

This one was for me.  It says, "I will love you forever."

I kept them both.  I cannot believe how fast she is growing up... how wonderful she is and how freely she loves.  I can only hope that this next baby is as wonderful as Arabella is.  She amazes me everyday. 

Mom, What If There Were Twin Bellas???!!!

Sometimes that is a scary thought... two Arabellas could be a big handful!  Especially when they look like this!  Look at that mischievous grin!

 

Or like this! 

 Grandma showed Arabella the photo booth app on her iPad and they both had a great time morphing their faces into strange shapes and emailing them to me for a good laugh!  This app will provide all four year olds with a genuine good time!  And as Arabella found out, you can even make a two-headed Strongbow!

Homemade Ice Cream in Ziplocks

Went to Sioux City this weekend to visit my mom.  She found this great activity on Pinterest for us to do... it was super fun, very easy, and delicious so I decided to share it!  It's homemade ice cream in ziplock baggies! 

Ingredients You Will Need:

2 TBL sugar
1 cup half & half 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 Put all these ingredients in a quart sized ziplock baggie.  Squish it around until it's nicely mixed together.

Then you'll need:

1/2 cup coarse salt or table salt  (We used canning salt)
ice cubes

Put these materials in a gallon sized ziplock with the quart sized ziplock inside.  Then do lots of squishing until the ice cream is mostly-frozen.  (Arabella recommends wearing gloves because it makes your hands VERY cold!) It takes about 10-15 minutes of squishing.

It's a good idea to rinse the pint sized baggie when you're done because it'll be covered with salt.  You can eat it right away or pop it in the freezer to eat later.  We made it at about 10 in the morning, so we ate it later.  

It was delicious and so super easy!  We will definitely be doing this again!

Lego Land!!!

 We drove up to Minneapolis over winter break for a hockey tournament and met up with Dave's stepbrother and his family at the Mall of America for a day of fun between games.  Arabella got Legos for Christmas and Colton is always up for Lego fun, so we made our first stop at Lego Land.  We spent over an hour there and ended up getting some little lego guys to play with at home. 

The hockey rink Arabella and Daddy made at Lego Land... see the Zamboni?  That was ALL Bella!

Arabella, 'Woody', and Colton at Lego Land

Then Rhett and Colton took Arabella on about a million rides.  She's finally tall enough to go on some rides without a chaperone and the boys were able to be chaperones for most other rides!  She had so much fun.  

AB riding the Wonder Pets ride on her own... I think she rode this one at least six times!

Two happy boys and one terrified little girl... who claimed it was "the best ride, not scary at all!"

 We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's and enjoyed catching up with Tory and Michelle (who we really don't see often enough).  Needless to say after a really fun day at the MOA, we ALL slept great that night!

Arabella's Writing

It says, "You are my little love bug" and the heart says "AB" in it.

My sweet little girl is loving learning how to write!  She writes me little messages like this one that totally make my day.  They're starting to really make sense when I look at them.  I've saved most of them in a little box in my room so I can look at them years from now (when she is a snotty teenager that tells me she hates me) and remember what a sweet little girl she is. 

Baby Belly

"I have a baby in my belly just like you Mama!" 

Recently realized I've never really announced that we're having a baby on the blog... most of you know anyway, but here ya go... and official announcement:
We are expecting a baby girl on February 28, 2012!  

All three of us are excited and can hardly wait for her to get here.

AB's Dance Party

Arabella's Dance Party on our last day of winter break... I can hardly believe how old she is getting... She recently requested this song to be put on her iPod.