40 Weeks and a sneak peek . . .

Arden is 40 weeks old! It's so strange to think she's been in this world longer than I was pregnant with her at this point!

Here are some pictures from the past weekend.

We got up Saturday morning and had breakfast at our favorite, Sue's Kitchen then made a quick trip to Sam's. The kiddos were great!

Arden loves to ride in the shopping cart, especially when she can ride right beside Stratton!

Saturday evening we went to Wynne to have the kids pictures taken by Jessica King. It was miserably hot but I think she got some good ones. Here they are in Jessica's inlaws yard. She's 7 months pregnant and still getting down on the ground to get a good shot!

Here's a few she sent me as a sneak peek. . .

Jarrod and I are in Minneapolis till Friday. I had to come to a Bayer Cropscience meeting and he's tagging along for fun! We will be back on Friday. I'm ready to be home, I'm already missing my babies!

Father’s day weekend and busy start to the week!

Jarrod has had to work late/nights so much lately! He had to work Friday (his normal day off) and Friday night (he went in about 8pm and got home around 6am). So since it can be impossible difficult to keep Stratton quiet, my mom took him home with her Friday night so Jarrod could get a few hours of sleep when he got home Saturday morning. He slept till about noon then mowed the yard and then we got ready and headed to HR.  We had father’s day for my Papa (the Gibson side of the family) Saturday evening at my nanny and papa’s house then we just stayed the night with my mom and dad since we were having Father’s Day for my grandpa and the Wilson’s Sunday at lunch. We had a good time with the Wilson’s. My uncle Doug had received a ladder ball game for Father’s day from Logan and Riley (2 of his grand-daughter) and we played it for quite a while and it was pretty fun! I wasn’t very good, but I didn’t completely stink!

We stayed at my grandpa and grandma’s house all afternoon and ran back to my mom and dad’s house just in time to change clothes (Stratton had to have a bath after playing with Riley outside) and get on the road home. We made it back to Jonesboro right on time, but the kids both fell asleep on the way (since they hadn’t had a nap) and they were both cranky when they woke up. We have VBS this week and it started Sunday night, and Stratton didn’t want to go sit with his class so I know he was tired!

After church we ran to Firehouse to get a sandwich (per Stratton’s request) and soon after we got home Jarrod checked his work phone only to find out that they had been trying to get ahold of him and he needed to go back to work. He helped me get the kids to bed and then he left about 9pm. They worked all night and he didn’t get home till about noon on Monday! He had planned to go home and rest, but his truck started messing up so he had to take it to see what was wrong. We still aren’t sure but it doesn’t sound good. So he got about an hour of sleep before I got home with the kids from school yesterday evening. Then it was rush, rush, to get them fed, bathed, clothed and to church by 6:30! We got home last night and got the kids to bed and then he crashed!

I know the kids love VBS, but it is such a struggle! I am glad it’s only 4 nights and not all week! I will try and get some pictures tonight, it looks so great and the kids are having such a good time!

I hope the rest of the week is calm and Jarrod doesn’t have to work late anymore. We haven’t even had a chance to give Jarrod his Father’s day cards and present yet! Maybe tonight!

Jarrod and kiddos after church

Playing Ladder Ball

What’s happening at Arden’s crib

I find her sitting up most of the time these days. . .no standing up yet, but I am sure that is soon to come since she loves to stand up. Most of the time when she wakes up we know it pretty quickly because she starts playing with the aquarium/sound machine on the side of her bed. She turns it on and off, and on and off and on and off. . . and we can hear it on the monitor. Especially since she slaps the on/off button and we hear “whack !” over and over and over. . .and there isn’t a snooze button on the baby monitor, although that’s a thought!

Busted! We’ve just had the baby monitor camera sitting on the side of the crib since Arden was born, but I think we are going to have to mount it or move it! I went to get her up from a nap and found her playing with it!

This is how I found her Saturday morning. . .

. . . she was reaching for something? But there was nothing in the floor? Who knows!

Prisoner!

This morning when I went in to get her up she had three blankets all pilled up in her lap! (Like she was ready to take them with her) And she didn’t like it when I pulled 2 of them away from her and only let her keep one! Oh and there was no pacifier to be found! I have no idea where it went?! I looked in the crib, in the floor. . .I think she might have ate it!

9 months old and tubes!

9 Months :: June 12th

Arden is one busy girl! At 9 months, she isn’t technically “crawling” but she gets where she wants to go one way or the other! She booty scoots and slithers, or she’ll look at you and stick her bottom lip out and look sad and someone will inevitably pick her up! With the exception of the past months ear infections, she is normally a really happy, laid back baby! She likes to watch Stratton but it’s not going to be much longer before curiosity gets the best of her and she’s in the middle of it!

She weighs 18 pounds and is wearing size 3 diapers and 9 mo/6-12 mo size clothes. She is eating good and still takes about 4 6oz bottles a day. Here are some more fun things about Arden at 9 months old!

• She is starting to pull her headbands and hair bows out! (This doesn’t make mommy happy)
• She loves to dump her toy bucket over and pull all the toys out. . .over and over and over. . .
• She is eating 3 meals a day now! So far she likes everything!
• Yogurt melts are her favorite snack, anything she can self-feed is a winner though.
• Still working on the sippy cup, so far not a fan.
• The stinker also won’t hold her bottle!
• She babbles; baabaa, daadaa, and other noises, but quit saying momma!
• She loves her brother and likes to kiss on him and wrestle with him!

This is what she does to Stratton’s animals when he’s not around : )

Really?! Of all the magazines for her to want to look at!

Cleaning out daddy’s magazine basket for him!

Hey brother! I wanna ride, too!!

That’s better!

Funny Videos. . . .

 

Tubes::  June 13th

The past week is a blur! She wasn’t acting like herself and was very cranky and fussy and her eyes were runny and matting up, so even though she wasn’t running a fever I took her the doctor on Monday. She (of course) had another ear infection. The 3rd one in about 6 weeks. Seems like there is about a week in between each one. They put her on another antibiotic, gave her a shot of rosephin and since we were going to the NEW ENT on Wednesday didn’t think they’d need to see her back. Tuesday my mom came and stayed with her and then Wednesday we had her ENT appointment with a different doctor and it went great, I was so relieved with all the information they gave me and made me feel so much better. Especially since I had to take her by myself I was afraid I’d be overwhelmed and not get all the information and ask the questions I wanted to! But it went fine. The doctor said her ears were really bad and if an adult had come in with the same thing they would be in tears. He was surprised she was so content and happy. (she was still kind of grumpy to me though!) They even remembered me (from Stratton and the rock incident- not sure if that’s a good thing or not?!) They also said they could do her tubes on Thursday! So, we ran to the hospital signed all her papers and got everything ready for her surgery the next morning! We were scheduled to be 2nd on Thursday morning. So we needed to be there between 5:30 and 6:00am. Which works great for us, since she is usually awake around 5:30 and ready for a bottle! I did wake her up (kinda, she didn’t really wake up fully) at 11:45pm and gave her a bottle because she wasn’t supposed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight. I think that might have helped some because she did great! She didn’t really wake up till we got to the hospital. She didn’t go back for surgery till about 7:30am, but she was so good the whole time. She even went willingly with the guy who took her back to have the procedure. It all took about 30 mins and when they came to get us they said she was just the best baby ever! Not that we were surprised! We were on our way back home by 8:30am! Jarrod went in to work, since he had a meeting in Searcy he didn’t want to miss, and I stayed home with Arden. They had warned us that she would be cranky, irritable, and sleepy. They were wrong. She took about a 30 minute nap and then was raring to go! She wore me out! She did take a little longer nap in the afternoon, but she didn’t act groggy or anything like they said she would! She actually acted like she felt better than she has in a week or more! So far we are really pleased with the results! The Dr told us her ears would probably drain for the next couple of weeks but other than that she wouldn’t have any other side effects. She is still taking her antibiotics for the infection she has, and they gave us some ear drops to use, so that’s not too bad. We go back for a follow up in a few weeks.

Waiting for her turn!

St. Louis :: Sunday

Homebound!

We stopped and ate brunch before heading out of town. . .

 

At Stratton’s Café!

The food was really fresh and yummy!

Then we hit the road. We made a pit stop in Sikeston, MO (so I could use my Carter’s rewards that was about to expire! I stocked up on play shorts for S and jammies for A) and grabbed Stratton a snack. We drove through some really hard rain, but not much storming. When we got to about Paragould we got a text that Craighead County was under a severe thunderstorm warning. I didn’t get too concerned, but kept an eye on the radar. We didn’t actually drive through much of that storm, I guess we went around it. So when we got home we were surprised to see this as we pulled into the driveway. . . .

Our Maple Tree died. I guess the wind did it in? It made me so sad! We had it planted the June before Stratton was born, when we had the front re-landscaped, so it’s almost 4 years old. I guess our anniversary present this year will probably be a new tree! Or maybe I will get Jarrod one for father’s day. . .and oh by the way you can plant it.  . . he’d love that! Haha.

After unloading, and assessing the dead tree situation. We jumped in the truck and headed to Hickory Ridge to pick Arden up (and the dog, they actually both stayed with gigi and pops). Arden was happy to see us, but didn’t act like she felt too good. Even though she wasn’t running a fever, I ended up taking her to the Doctor Monday and no surprise, she has another bad ear infection. They gave her a shot of rocephin and put her on another antibiotic. Luckily we have an appointment with the new ENT on Wednesday! I hope they don’t make us wait too long to do the tubes! I am ready for her to get well and stay well!

St. Louis :: Saturday

We did manage to get up and out a little earlier. We stopped into a St. Louis Bread Co. and ate breakfast before heading to Grant’s Farm. I don’t know if I mentioned this but the weather was perfect! Mild temperatures, especially for June and little to no humidity! At night it was actually kind of cool! (Monday night at the ballgame, after being a human target for a bird passing by. . .it just hit my left leg thankfully! I ended up having to buy a sweatshirt I was so cold.)

Grant’s Farm was a lot of fun! Stratton enjoyed it as much as the zoo, I think. We spent a few hours there, there aren’t as many animals as I remembered but plenty to keep us busy. By the time we left he was passed out in the stroller and we took him to the Clydesdale barn, but he was so tired he could have cared less! He looked at the ones in the stables and then was ready to go!

Riding the truck/train thing to Grant’s farm

Riding the carousel with mom this time

Feeding the baby goats! He would have stayed all day with those goats!

And he got to ride a camel (he wanted dad to ride, too)

After we left Grant’s Farm it was around 1:30 and we were starving so we thought we’d try to find Fitz’s Rootbeer and bottling company. I had seen where you could watch the bottling line from the restaurant and I thought that might be neat to see. We got lucky and they seated us right in front of the bottling line windows! It was really neat to watch. The food was great and of course the root beer was fantastic!

Right in front of our table was all the action!

After our adventure at Fitz’s we went back to the hotel to rest and clean up. Turns out we all feel asleep and I woke up at 5:30pm! We had planned to spend some time at the Galleria Mall and then stop in at the Cheesecake Factory for supper and dessert. Well it was 6:45 before we got to the mall. I did call ahead and make reservations for us at 7:30, but by the time we got parked and went into a couple of stores (Janie and Jack and Sperry) it was time for dinner! I wasn’t that hungry since I pigged out at lunch, so Stratton and I shared a small plate of chicken skewers and salad and saved room for the best part. . . the CHEESECAKE!!

 

Oreo on the left and Peanut Butter on the right.

Pretty good end to a great day!

St.Louis :: Friday

We didn’t get up and around as early as we would have liked. Jarrod had a bit of a cold and wasn’t feeling too great. We had planned to go to the zoo in the morning and then have lunch and do some other things in the afternoon. Well, it took about an hour to get to the zoo and get parked. It was crazy! We had to park on the side of the road because all the parking lots were full!

Dillon and Brandye were in St. Louis to see the game on Thursday night and they also went to the zoo on Friday, they got to park in the lot, but they were there before us- I guess the early bird gets the worm! We rode the train around the whole zoo first.

[Pictures taken by Stratton on the train]

Then we went through the River’s End area and met Dillon and Brandye for lunch there. (not what I had planned at all!) I was actually pretty decent for zoo food. After lunch we headed on to see the rest of the zoo and they were already done with the whole park! I forget how fast you can go when you don’t have a kid in tow!

He got to pet a sting-ray!

No fear.

Riding the carousel (with Jarrod- heehee)

We saw all kinds of animals. . . .

Zebra and there was a baby!

and there was a baby camel, too.

We spend the ENTIRE day there. We got there around 10:30 and left around 5:30! Whew! I guess we got our money’s worth (especially since it’s free!). But by the time we were done we were all exhausted, however only one of us could pass out. . . He’s getting too big for his stroller, but he still likes to ride in it. I think we are going to have to invest in a sit and stand stroller of some sort (Kristen, when you get a chance do some research for me) to deal with Stratton and Arden in the near future.

We decided that since it was getting so close to dinner time and there was a restaurant that was on our “list” near by we might as well try it. The Boathouse in Forest Park was a really pretty place on the lake. It has a pretty park beside it and it’s super close to the zoo. We got to eat outside on the patio and it was so nice! They also welcome dogs and if you bring your dog with you they bring them their own dog bowl of water! How cute is that?! After dinner the boys took a peddle boat out on the lake.

After dinner we tracked down a cupcake place I had heard about called The Cup. If you know us, you know we like cupcakes! Jarrod considers himself a cupcake connoisseur (and he’s pretty well skilled and experienced in cupcake consumption!) It took us awhile to find it, as it’s smack in the middle of the Central West part of town (which is a happening place on a Friday night, apparently.) It looked like a very hip part of town, I think I saw a  sign somewhere that said “urban eclectic ”. Pretty neat place, a lot of old mixed with new. . .Anyway, after making the block several times in really slow traffic, we decided that Stratton and I would just jump out and get them and Jarrod would make the block and come back around and pick us up.

We took them back to the hotel and ate them. They were super yummy! The manager at this location’s name is Jon Baker. . .how ironic is that?!