where's my little girl???

(Annabell and Briana) (Annabell and Adrienne Snow)

Annabell's continues to amaze me in how much she knows. Tonight she was reading through her baby colors book and was telling me different things. I specifically asked her "what is the baby wearing" and she told me "a towel" which was correct. I was surprised because I had never practiced those kind of question sentences with her. I also asked her what her name is and she said "aaaabelll"! She was so excited, probably because we did a celebration dance after she understood the question correctly and said her name. Ford sneezed today and she turned to him and said "bless you!". She also said "YO!" after she heard me say that while answering a phone.
Honey mustard pretzels are Annabell's favorite snack right now. You should of seen the yellow stain around her mouth from all of the pretzels she ate! Also Brad and I could barely contain our laughter when eating dinner as a family last night. Annabell decided to server herself rice. She stood up and leaned her entire body on the table to reach the rice bowl, grabbed the spoon and very slowly put some rice on her plate and then put the bowl and spoon back. We had to keep our laughter composed so we could correct her about doing it with out help. It was funny though. Speaking of independence she likes to say "walk" when she does not want to hold my hand, which I am fine with as long as we are not in the street. When we are I tell her "we are in the street so you have to hold mommy's hand" and she does so very well.
Last week (well starting about a month ago but it hit it's top last week) Annabell became very ill. She had a fever of 103.5 or higher for 3 days straight, so I took her to the Dr. She was given antibiotics (Amoxicilin) but they seemed to only worsen things. So on Friday we took her back. She was given a stronger antibiotic shot, chest x-ray, and then antibiotics for a prescription as well. She is healed thanks be to God. Thank you all for your prayers! She is finally getting her appetite back and eating everything in the house again.


About 2 weeks ago we decided to plant some herbs (because I would love to start cooking with fresh herbs) while daddy and bubbi took a nap. So Annabell and I got the dirt out. She shovel dirt into each planter, mixed the seeds and the water and poured them into the dirt. She then placed them in the window. We planted basil, chives, and parsley. They are starting to sprout and she is seeming interested in them. We also planted some wild flowers which are starting to finally sprout...the seeds are over 2 years old though so we'll see what they do.

I don't know if you noticed or not, but Annabell is wearing "big girl panties" in several pictures. She did GREAT in them. She wore her first pair for about 3 hours with no accidents. And the next day she wore them 2 times with only one accident. We even went out to a friends before she had any accidents for the day. She didn't like having an accident in her panties. Unfortunately she became sick shortly after and potty training went out the door because she was so ill. But she did ask to go to the potty a few times today so I think she is starting to become interested again. I must say I wish we had a kids toilet that fit over ours so I didn't have to clean up her potty every time she goes, it's not fun. In the pictures above Annabell is climbing into Ford's crib. She does this on occasion and has only done it once with him in it without me around. She likes to make him laugh and he LOVES it.

Finally Annabell and daddy mowed our lawn together, she was so observant of "helping" her daddy with her hands on the controls. She was very intensely focusing on the lawn and was excited to help. I brought her and her daddy some water and there is a picture of her relaxing in the driveway with her water after her hard day of work. I adore her!

A few more notes:
Annabell is adamant about washing her hands.
She likes to climb on our backs for rides.
she asks to bring Roxy to the park
she loves asking for her friends Owen (2 1/2 year old boy) and Courtney and Bekkah (babysitters).
She calls me Abby on occasion (which doesn't bother me since she doesn't understand it to be disrespectful, it's my name, and doesn't do it too often.
She continues to love necklaces and jewelry of ALL kinds.
she will now "race" me at the park.
We also play red light green light and she enjoys the game.

Well that's all for now, love y'all!

funny

Picture of us from Mother's Day (I loved how she hugged me!)

Annabell continues to make us laugh. Last night I was up late finishing a short novel, and all of a sudden I heard "Hi!" and then louder and more enthusiastic "HI!!!". She was sleep talking! That is the first time I have ever heard it, and I couldn't help but laugh. I talk in my sleep all the time...Brad says I have conversations! So it was funny to hear her happily saying Hi to someone in her dream.
She is a dancing machine. We turn on a karaoke CD during the day and dance our booties off. She loves it and her brother likes to laugh at us.
Best snack yet!! Kelly Eastman suggested using go-gurts (yogurts in a plastic Popsicle like bag) and freezing them as nice cool treats. It's all yogurt and the kids think they are Popsicles. Well I tried it and Annabell LOVED THEM! She ate it so fast that I thought she must of dropped it somewhere but sure enough she had just eaten it that fast!
Well G-ma now has a name, it's "Mamaa" pronounced like Grandma on the vowel emphasis. She loves her Mamaa so much! She likes to call her and talk to her on speaker phone. Speaking of that, today she got to talk to her Papa on speaker phone(who she later insisted on calling again). She was so excited to talk to him! The best part was when she said "Daddy's at work"! She has said sentences before, but they are usually broken with the exception of "I want ___" etc. It was so awesome to hear her speak like that. She also (about 3-4 days ago) started saying "thank you" with out prompting! I was so excited and praised her so much for her good manners that she ran around saying it over and over! Now we are working on "your welcome". I was explaining why something was wrong the other day and she said "yes ma'am" unsolicited, which made me ecstatic! She also said "Yeah?" when I called for her from the other room today, which I laughed at and was excited she understood that she could respond so far away, but also didn't like "yeah" and wanted to encourage "yes ma'am" but the laughter won that battle.
We bought Annabell big girl panties today. She was very excited to get them at Walmart tonight! She started taking a strong interest back to her potty training today, so I think I might encourage it with some panties! (not sure if that's the "right" method so if you have input feel free to share!). She keeps taking her diaper off. All day I was putting it back on her, so I was thinking maybe she will enjoy wearing actual panties. We'll see ;)

Annabell is really enjoying more social activities. She has always loved them, but now she likes to follow the instructions and pay attention (most of the time). Here is a photo of her at the library

The other day we were at bible study at Lucinda's house, who has a pool. The kids swim afterwards and Annabell wanted to join. But since I didn't pack for the occasion she wore her diaper. Well that didn't last long. She then wanted to take it off and swim in the nude! She was so funny running around with no worries...ah to be like EVE. Here is a video of her learning that kicking under water can get you somewhere. I was excited that she learned this concept and grabbed the camera to catch some. She doesn't usually use "floaties" of any sort, but this learned to be a valuable tool in teaching her the concept of kicking to move in water. Love y'all!

Mothers Day 09

Here are some videos of how my crazy daughter loves to run around...she always slows down a bit when the camera goes on, but this captures my Mother's day. I AM SO BLESSED! I awoke to a wonderful hand made card! I love those! I also had a hand stamped card from her Sunday school class. What a wonderful day it was. I also was treated to supper by Big Pop and Brad. YUMMY!

We love y'all

quickly...

Here are a few notes and pictures and I'll update more later:

• Annabell loves to hold Ford's hand in the car now. They even fall asleep together while holding hands! Too cute.
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• She talks all the time and likes to say "sure" and "right"
• She seems to be scared of very few things...she even goes down the giant slide at the park.
• She likes to take care of "Mana" (Briana) when I watch her Mon-Thurs. Today she woke up from her nap and was asking where she was!
• Annabell's hair can now go up into a pony tail and not fall out everywhere. She wakes up every morning with it in her eyes though!
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• Annabell spends about 10 + minutes on the swings every time we go! She LOVES to swing
  

Here is a picture of B too...I just thought she looked too beautiful not to post it

Love y'all!

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!