Sick

Annabell woke up last night with a high fever...102.2 (but i don't think it was quite accurate, I think it was higher). She was crying and shaking. So we got her some ice water and medicine, prayed for her and then back to bed. This morning is was 100.8 and now 99.9. Please say a prayer for her.
Just a few notes:

• Annabell now yells out Dori's name and Darla's name when she sees them on Nemo.
• She also uses her spoon and fork quite well these days.

• She prays on her own which we LOVE to hear. She begins her prayers with lots of thanks for daddy, mommy, "Bord" (Ford), Mana (Briana), bahbah (big pop) and Papa. That's the names she remembers easily. We cover everyone else together.
• She counts to 6 pretty well.
• She went skating for the first time on Sunday. She LOVED it, but enjoyed even more just running around in her shoes on the rink.
• She loves having bows put in her hair.

• She now sings Happy Birthday to you...
• She does the hand motions to itsy bitsy spider
• she knows she has to go get her shoes to go outside now.
• She feeds Roxy (our lab) daily, her chore...which she LOVES.
• She likes to hold Ford, who is almost her size, on her lap.
• She speaks in complete sentences, which I can translate most of the time...ha.
• She also has gone through a testing phase for a while now, but responds best when I am calm and firm in tone.
• Potty training has been kind of stagnant. I will read the how to potty train in one day book soon and see if she has met the milestones yet.
  

Smart Cookie

Annabell is so smart. She is learning everything so fast. I just wanted to mention a few things.

1. She has been going to the potty all by herself! (about 2 weeks now)Tonight she actually got out of the tub all by herself and sat on her potty and went...I'll leave the details out. ha
2. She is saying a ton of things. Pretty much everything. I can't even keep up.
3. She now kisses with her mouth shut (most of the time) and the kiss noise. She loves to go up and kiss her brother. Or kiss my eye or ear...etc. It's adorable.
4. She is a huge help with her brother and cousin, she gets me spit up rags, binkis, bottles and more upon request.
5. She actually will get Ford his binki (mimi) any time he begins to cry.
6. She sits at the table with us (on top of a towel because of her mess) and eats with a big girl fork.
7. She also has taken her diaper off today for the first time. She woke up this morning and when I opened the door she handed me her diaper. She then did the same thing after her nap and said "Poopoo" and sure enough she had went #2 in her diaper! I think she is getting close to using pull ups.
   
8. She sings the song "B-i-b-l-e" and exclaims "BIBLE!" at the end of it.
   

Well that's it for now. We are headed to the pool tomorrow. She has slowly started to warm up to the pool again....I hope she does better soon. She fell in at my friends community pool in the Jacuzzi and was under for about 10 seconds. She held her breath and scared me to death! She did not however get to the side like I thought she would....so I am back at trying to get her to do so. It was incredibly scary, and in Florida there is way TOO much water for my kids not to know how to swim very early. The earlier they know the better I will feel. Love y'all!

Easter Weekend

We have had a a busy weekend! Good Friday Annabell came with me to a local Gym and played while I took a spin class. She seemed o.k. with it. It wasn't the best environment for building kids up. They had a TON of toys, but they also had a lot of video games and there was no structure, so the kids just played by themselves or with others. Annabell was playing by herself when I came in (I could watch her on a T.V. from the gym though, which was nice). She was neatly placing each letter on a sticky board. She was excited for me to come pick her up though. Which she normally isn't as eager to go when in Sunday school (where there is more structure and organized fun).



Then on Saturday morning Annabell, Ford, Daddy, and I all went to the park across the street for an Easter egg hunt and picnic lunch, complements of a local church called "The Connection". It was a great time. The only problem was the eggs had ants on them because they pre-filled them with candy. So Brad was sweet enough to take all the ants off of Annabell and Lilia's baskets. Annabell had a lot of fun opening up the eggs and putting them in her basket. She preferred to put her basket down, run all over the place looking for eggs and then bring them back to her basket. She would put them in and then immediately take them out to check out the candy.

After the hunt Annabell played at home with Lilia and then took a nap. When she woke up we went outside and played with Dad in the baby pool. It was a hot day so it made for a nice break. Annabell had a BLAST playing in the pool with Brad. I would post some but since her diaper was heavy her butt was showing most of the day! ha.

After supper we died eggs as a family. Annabell really enjoyed dying the eggs but I think her favorite part was watching Daddy juggle the eggs! She proceeded to try and juggle herself shortly after. Not the same outcome. ha.

Easter morning was a whirlwind. I woke at 6:19 for Ford, and then after feeding him and getting myself ready Annabell woke-up. She was excited to see her Easter basket and toys but dove right into her brother's stuff. Here is some video of her waking up.

She actually let me curl her hair this morning, but since I don't own hairspray, it fell by the time we arrived at church. She looked so beautiful in her dress!
Her cousin actually had the same one, and no we didn't plan it, just happened that way. They were adorable!
The church had an egg hunt as well today. She was really getting a hang of finding all the eggs and looking in unassuming areas for kids, like bushes etc...
She had even more fun at Grandma's and Big Pops house today. She played so hard today with the fish and birds and kids. She went right to bed this evening.
Annabell is really saying some neat things lately. She sings "B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me, BIBLE!" and you can actually hear her say most of those words!
She is saying complete sentences pretty well now. She is GREAT with her brother. When he is in a chair or a swing she will give him his "Me-me" which is his binki, if he cries. They play really well together, and he loves laughing at her. She also is doing great with potty training. She still tells us when she needs to go, most of the time. OH I almost forgot. When I was at the gym they actually paged me, and upon arriving they told me that she need to go potty. She was standing at the gate, grabbing at her pants saying "potty" when I walked in (they don't handle diapers or potty training there). She also told me she had to go potty at the beach on thursday. I was so proud because they both were unfamiliar circumstances for her where she was preoccupied with playing and still let me know and even let a teacher know! My big girl!

Here are some pictures of Annabell's beautiful dress and curled hair.

We even took a family photo this morning at church.
Sorry about not rotating the photo's. I'm just too tired to edit them now. ;). Well we love all of y'all and thank GOD that we can praise him for conquering death! HAPPY EASTER! Love y'all!

Prayer

We have had a busy week. Annabell has been fighting a weird bug or something. Monday she threw up 5 times from the hours of 5-8pm. She then proceeded to go right to sleep and was acting happy as can be when not getting sick. The next day she was fine. And then yesterday she threw up 3 times again and then today she has been sick with the potty (hope you can understand that). The weird thing is she is acting fine and eating okay. She has no fever and was only sluggish tonight and really wanting to cuddle with G-ma. She had a blast today and on Monday too. We got to play with Keanna, a little girl I was babysitting for our friends. She was helpful. Although Annabell instigated about a thousand fights with her. She would get jealous if Keanna touched Ford and wouldn't let her touch "her" bubbie. She also would fight over every toy, knock down her blocks that she just built, and slap her! I had to correct Annabell all day. Then on the other hand she would hug her, kiss her, hold hands and play with her and follow her around. So up and down! But it gives me a chance to teach Annabell so I am thankful for that. Both girls are "type A" personalities so it was inevitable for them to clash. She seems to play best with laid back kids, because they seem to let her take the rains and she is more obliged to give up control as well.
Well her talking with complete sentences has become awesome. She said, "Mommy, Help me" several times now. It was so exciting to hear! She also said the best thing ever....HER FIRST PRAYER ON HER OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYA. I can not tell you what joy that brought me! She bowed her head before lunch on her own and then began to pray with gibberish so I thought she was just copying the noises made during prayer but then she said "and Daddy and Mommy and Mana" (Mana is a name for several people, it actually might of been Keanna) She was thanking God for us! We do that every night at bed time, but not lunch, we pray for the day and food typically around lunch. I was so overwhelmed with Joy.
Her potty training is going great. She wasn't feeling well today and I think it helped her recognize the urge to "go" because for the first time while playing she asked to go potty (while at the beach today). She also said "poopoo" while driving home and I asked her to hold it ("Wait") until I got home and she did and then used the bathroom after reminding me she still had to go when we got home!

Well I have enclosed some pictures from church. The flowers are blooming and it couldn't be more beautiful here this time of year! It's not too hot but just perfect! Here is some video of the beach today, just her running around.

I also took her and Keanna to Lakes Park on Monday. She liked it but still seems to take her a life time to warm up to the water.

Well that's all for now! Happy Easter.

p.s. Nanny (momma) we love you and miss you!

Go Daddy!

Tonight our church's softball team had a double header. So we packed up the kids (since we both play) and went to the field. Annabell and Ford were at the field for 3 hours and did really well. Annabell's only issue was she wanted to play with all the kids and sometimes they would run off and she would go with them so I would have to bring her back. But but besides that she did great. She LOVES cheering for us. It is so wonderful to hear her say "Go Mommy!" when I'm at bat. She loves to look for daddy and cheer really loud for him too! She will say "Go daddy Go!" and when someone misses a ball she will yell "BALL!" like she is telling them where it is!

Last Friday we went out of town on the middle school retreat. The kids had a blast. Annabell ate up ALL the attention the girls lavished on her. On Friday and Saturday Annabell used the bathroom every time she had to go #2 and not once went into her diaper. We had to make sure and ask her if she needed to go. If she does when we ask then she will tell us, but if she doesn't she will say "No". She had an accident on Sunday, but it was really our fault because we were so busy and didn't get a chance to ask her until it was too late. She tells us sometimes too, but she does best we she tells us and we ask her all day. A combined effort. I bought her some big girl pull ups, but they didn't work too well because she couldn't get them pulled down. BUT she was tickled pink that she got to wear big girl "panties". SO that day she went in her pull up and Briana was sleeping Ford's room where the diapers are so I thought it would be fine to just use her bloomers until I could get to a diaper...I then proceeded to forget she only had bloomers on and she went #1 all of daddy's chair. I felt bad for her and him! But she is doing great with her training....she is still a little young, but on a great path for potty training.
I got to watch Briana a couple of days this week and it was so much fun. Annabell enjoyed playing with Briana. She really like the fact that B takes a bottle. She kept trying to feed her and then take it away from her again so she could feed her again. I had to step in on the feeding though. Annabell also started to crawl around because B is crawling. It was funny, because Annabell would take off crawling and turn around and motion for B to follow her and she would just laugh and follow Annabell. It was cute!


We took the
kids to their first real Baseball game. It was so much fun. Brad and I had Briana, Ford and Annabell and did really well with 3. Annabell really enjoyed cheering for the teams! She would throw her fist in the air and yell "GO!" and then clap for the team that hit the ball. Home team or away didn't matter to her! We watched the game from the 3rd row back for a few innings and then the kids were getting too hot and fussy, so we moved up to the "cheap seats" and got them out of the sun. But there really are no bad seats in that stadium.

Well Annabell has really discovered make-up. She always likes me to put some one her when I wear it, but I rarely wear make-up so she hasn't had many opportunities, but I gave her some old make-up I have kept for our youth girls and man did she go to town. I let her play in it while I did some volunteer work on the computer and she had a blast. The pictures say enough.

This is her new make up after I washed off the old make up!


This is a picture of Annabell in Ford's bouncer. Lately with her being around B and Ford so much she has wanted to try all of his toys and crawl around like a baby. She gets bored quickly though and moves on.





Here is a video of Annabell and us playing in the yard. It was a gorgeous evening so we went out for a bit before dinner. If you notice she is wearing boots (her choice). She was running to us (Ford and I) and tripped and fell, knocking her head against his head. They both had huge eggs on their foreheads and sent me into a panic attack thinking it was worse than it ended up being. Praise God he healed them both quickly and they had no problems besides huge bruises on their foreheads!

Finally here is a picture of Annabell pushing Ford at the park. She is such a good big sister.