It's official

Emma is officially enrolled in school. We went last night to an open house at her elementary school. They immediately whisked the kids away to play on the playground. I was actually a little shocked that Em went with no hesitation. Parents were talked to, papers were handed out, then we met back up with the kids and had a scavenger hunt. We had to find all the important rooms in the school and get a sticker from each. We are all excited to have the process started. Now, all we do is wait for August to roll around to get her placement test done and await the posting of her teacher.

I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous about throwing her into a full day of school. She will actually get a couple "warm up" days. Her first day of school will be 1 1/2 hours long, and I will be with her the whole time. Day #2 is a half day and Day #3 starts her regular school day.

Score one for mom's intuition. Last night I had a nagging feeling that I needed to go and check on the girls. As I was walking back to their room Arabel coughed. I snatched her out of bed and though she felt hot. As I was getting some tylenol around to give her, she pukes. Less than one minute after I HAD to get up and get her out of bed. No mess was made, no bedding had to be changed, no clothes had to be washed (that is due to the fact that Arabel refuses to sleep in clothes). Something must have upset her stomach, but she was back to her normal self after she got sick. a couple of crackers and some water and she was as good as new.

now she can be a real princess

Nothing overly exciting has been happening on the home front, which explains the lack of updates. :)

We have booked our tickets and hotels for a trip out of town in April. My cousin is getting married in Minneapolis and I was not going to miss it. Rather than taking another road trip like we did in August, we decided not to drive. Don't get me wrong, I am all for road trips, but the idea of being in the car for like 30 hours in the span of a weekend wasn't all that appealing to me. We decided that we would take the train from East Lansing to Chicago. I figure that the girls will get a kick out of that, plus it is only a 4 hour ride. We are staying in Chicago that evening, which will allow us time to catch up with some family and enjoy some deep dish pizza. :) Rob hasn't ever been to the city, so it should be a fun mini trip. We will be flying out of Chicago to Minneapolis the next day. (Nothing like turning an 8 hour drive into 1 1/2 hours in the air.) We are doing the same thing in reverse on the way back (minus the overnight stay in Chicago). I think that it will be a fun weekend for everyone.

Emma can now be a real princess. At least that is what she told me. Last week she was lamenting over the fact that all the real princesses have their ears pierced. I told her if she wanted them done, then we would get them done. I have been trying to use getting her ears pierced as a reward for years (to no avail, obviously). She was finally ready. I called ahead and made sure that two people would be available to pierce simultaneously. (If not, Emma would have jumped out of the chair and only had one ear done.) She was ummm.... less than thrilled with everyone when she got them done. The type of cry that she let out was one of those that tugged on my heartstrings. How in the world could I let these girls torture my poor little baby like that? A tear may or may not have escaped from my eye. After an hour of sniffles and cuddling her doll, she was proudly showing off her new earrings. She picked an adorable little set of rhinestone pink (surprise!!) flowers. Here is a picture I took right after. :)
Please notice that she is smiling in this picture, so I guess I didn't torture her too badly.

Another big development... I have received information that KINDERGARTEN round up is in like a month. Yup, Emma will be heading off to school in a matter of months. Oy. When in the heck did this kid grow up?? In 5 weeks I will have details on her first year of school. I don't know that I am prepared for this.

I am going to start potty training Arabel shortly. I got a copy of a book that I am willing to try the method. It is called 3 day potty training. 3 DAYS!! If it works, you will probably be able to hear my screams of joy from where ever you are. A kid that is potty trained in 3 days and before the age of 2?? I may just keel over and die from sheer excitement of the idea. I will keep you updated on how it is working. In the meantime enjoy this adorable shot of Bells. (She was getting the feel for the potty.)




I also wanted to give a giant THANK YOU!!!! to my dear friend Kristin. She made these gorgeous headers for my blogs. Her talents are endless.

One addiction down

I just wanted to share that Arabel is officially bottle free. :) We have managed to finally find a sippy cup that she likes and will drink out of consistantly. I am going to say that I am happy we broke her bottle habit before she was 17 months. Which is pretty good considering she never used a pacifier, her bottle was a comfort item. The bottles are being packed up and put away. :)

Belle's 1st concert

Tonight we went to Common Ground. I managed to score some free tickets from an old friend, so it was a perfect family outing. Billy Squire was playing along with Los Lonely Boys. We didn't stay past 10, the girls were getting restless but Arabel has been to a concert. :) Emma was thrilled that she got to have a gigantic corn dog for dinner.

A corn dog with ketchup. :)

The girls also made a couple friends with another couple little ones. I think Arabel may have gotten her first boyfriend. It was adorable to watch the kids together. They both had a ton of fun.

Belle singing along and enjoying the show.


Emma got her picture taken with the Spartans. (Go Green!!)

July update

First of all, welcome to the new blog. I sincerly apologize for letting the old blog go to the wayside. I had discovered blogspot and found that it was more suitable for me. I promise that I will do a better job of keeping this one up. :) With that said, on with the updates.

Arabel had her first ER visit on Monday. She had been acting unlike herself all day. Rob and I had attributed it to teething. The poor girl has popped 3 molars through in the past 4 days. Our vibrant 14 month old who is normally told to stay out of things every 2 seconds was just laying on the couch. She seemed to be babying her left arm, we didn't see any bruising or swelling when we checked it out. After I had gone to work, Arabel was in incredible pain and was wailing like crazy. Rob ended up taking her to the pediatric ER. She was diagnosed with nursemaid's elbow which is a partial dislocation. They popped it back into place and she was back to her normal self. It is a very common childhood injury and it was easily remedied, luckily for us. Emma admitted to jumping around and holding on to her arm which is likely how it happened. We are very happy that it wasn't more serious.

Emma has been working hard on learning her letter sounds and is doing a fantastic job. She is going camping next weekend with my parents for 4 days and she is very excited about it. She keeps talking about swimming and fishing. I can't wait to hear all about her trip.

Now, on to the pictures. :)