Iowa State Fair 2010

Dave, Arabella, and I went to the Iowa State Fair yesterday. Arabella was so excited. We did the "park and ride" because it was cheaper than parking close to the fair. Arabella was so excited that she got to ride on a bus. As we got off the bus, Bella told me the bus was her favorite part of the fair (we hadn't even gotten in the gates yet)!

Dave and Arabella at the Iowa State Fair

This is my very favorite part of the Iowa State Fair... Monkey Tails! They are a frozen banana on a stick dipped in chocolate - so delicious! I finally got to share this love with Arabella... she enjoyed it, but later told me she only liked the chocolate part.

Our friend's daughter Caitlynn was working at the fair and she hooked Bella up with a free ride on the Giant Slide.


Bella LOVED it!

We went to the Baby Animal Exhibit. Bella loved seeing all the tiny baby farm animals. She even got to pet the calves and goats. She thought the pigs were cute, "but really stinky!"
Then, we were walking by a big cow pen and realized that the cow was giving birth, right then and there! So we stayed and watched. Bella (and Dave and I) were amazed! It was so cool. Definitely a learning experience for us all. Arabella still hasn't stopped talking about it.

WARNING: These pictures are graphic!

The calf's hooves were sticking out as we walked by. The vet had to come into the pen and help pull the cow out. In order to do this, he had to reach his arm in ("he put his arm in the cow's bum, Mommy!") and hook a rope onto the hooves and pull the calf out.

Here's the calf right after birth. "He's all yucky Mommy! Ewww!"

The mama cow cleaning off her baby. "The mommy cow is telling her baby a story!"

UFF-DA 2010

Dave's family reunion (UFF-DA) was held in Okoboji, Iowa this year. We had a lot of fun planning it with Patti, and it all went great! Here are a few pictures of our fun:
Arabella and Amara watching Dave tee off on the 3rd hole

These girls play so well together!

Me: "Arabella, how did your feet get all dirty?"

Bella: "Mara and I were playing in that sandbox over there!"

Me: "That's not a sand box Bella, it's a sand trap!" The Classic "Leighton Boys with Mom" pose!

The whole UFF DA crew (minus about three people)

Ballet Class

Arabella just began taking her first dance class - a ballet class! She loves it, she even asks everyday if today is ballet day! :) Here are a few pictures from her first ballet class

Birthday Pictures!

Here are some pictures from Arabella's 3rd Birthday!

Princess Arabella wearing her new tiara!

Happy Birthday and 4th of July Cupcakes

Sharing her cupcake with Grandma Patti

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We celebrated Arabella's birthday over the 4th of July weekend in Okoboji! Dave's brother Steve and his fiance Joanna, Dave's younger brother Mark and his girlfriend Sarah, and Dave's mom Patti all came up to help us celebrate. We had such a fun time! It was great weather and we made some great memories!

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On Arabella's birthday (July 8), she woke up and came downstairs to her big birthday surprise - her new big girl bike! :) She was ecstatic and wanted to go ride it right away. She loves riding to the mailboxes to get the mail - she even puts the mail key into her princess pouch on the front of her bike. We also celebrated at Incredible Pizza for dinner. Her favorite part was going on the Go Karts with her Daddy.

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Arabella and her Great-Gramma Alice having a tea party in the swimming pool

Daddy and Arabella

Arabella requested a "Balloon cake with suckers" (just like we saw at Target), so we made our first Jello poke cake! It was really good! :) You can see the sucker "balloons" were a big hit! She was really excited.

Three Year Old Swimmer Girl!

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We also celebrated Bella's birthday in Sioux City with my parents, my Aunt Debbie, Uncle Al, and my Gramma Alice. We had a pool party, complete with a serious volleyball game and tea parties with Arabella... Then we grilled and opened presents. I love that our families are so involved with Arabella and they all come to help celebrate her birthdays with us. :)

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Arabella Ann Leighton - Three Years Old

I can hardly even believe that my beautiful baby girl is already three years old. It seems like just yesterday we were swaddling her every night for bed and debating whether or not we should start solid foods. Here are the facts about Arabella at Three:

Her favorites are:

Foods - Cheese and Fruit

Movie - Snow White

Book - Just One More Swim by Caroline Pitcher

Game - Candy Land

TV Show - Super Why and Dinosaur Train

Color - Purple

Song - Yankee Doodle

She is exactly 36 inches tall (10th percentile) and weighs 27.5 pounds (25th percentile)... She is still just a tiny little bean! She wears a size 24 month shirt and size 18 month pants - can you believe it?!

Bella wakes up between 5 and 6 mostly every morning, no matter what time we put her to bed. She's definitely an early bird! However, she does wake up with a smile every morning! She loves to cuddle in the mornings - those are some of my favorite times, sitting on the couch cuddling with Bella while she drinks cocoa and I have my coffee. :)

Arabella is very girly at times but also loves to get dirty... much to my dismay, Arabella loves playing in the sand and the dirt... eww! She loves to run and roll in the grass, but she would dress up in princess clothes everyday if we let her!

Bella is very excited to be three... she now has chores at home because big kids need to help out around the house. She feeds Mondavi every day. She also sets the table for dinner and helps me with laundry. She is so responsible, often remembering to do her chores without prompting.

She is a really fun little girl... but she is very strong-willed (not quite sure where she gets that - LOL) and the terrible two's that didn't actually happen are carrying over into the terrible three's! We'll get through it by the Grace of God and a little patience... hopefully!

I'll post a few pictures tomorrow, too tired tonight! :)

Adventureland

My sister came to Des Moines for a work event at Adventureland so Arabella and I met up with her there. It was REALLY hot, but we had a lot of fun anyway! There were a lot of rides Bella could go on and she was so excited about all of them! She says her favorite was "the tea cups 'cause they spin round and round and faster and faster!" We also spent a lot of time in the waterpark, Bella went down her favorite slide about fifty times! Even though I ended the day with a really bad headache, it was a great day!

Arabella and Sara on the Merry-Go-Round

Arabella "flying" on the airplane ride - just like Grandpa!

Okoboji - cation # 1

Dave had hockey practice in Des Moines, and I had FINALLY gotten out of school for the summer, so Arabella and I decided to take a trip to Okoboji! Grandma Patti, Uncle Mark, and his girlfriend Sarah were there too! It was a lot of fun... nice and relaxing! Not the BEST weather, but not horrible either. We went boating on Saturday and I even managed to make two bonfires (even after it rained!) for us to hang out!

1st Bonfire of the year! Even with wet wood!

Chillaxing in her Dora chair - she loves bonfires!!!

Mark and his girlfriend Sarah! We had a great time getting to know her!

Grandma Patti and Arabella hanging out on the hammock!

I let her roast her own marshmallow for the first time - she didn't want to do S'mores, just eat all the ingredients by themselves!

Marshmallow Mouth!

Uncle Mark gave Arabella a really tall ride!

Uncle Mark let Bella drive the boat for a while too!

Grandma Patti and Arabella loving the boat ride!

More Memorial Day Video!

I forgot about this video from Memorial Day!

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

We all went to Sioux City to spend Memorial Day Weekend with my parents. For the first time in years, we finally had a great weather weekend! Saturday was in the nineties and the pool was 82 degrees! Perfect for a relaxing pool day! Arabella had a blast swimming by herself - she loves this floatie suit now. Here's a video of swimming that weekend.

And here are some cute pictures from the weekend! We had so much fun, it was hard to choose just a few pictures!

Squirting Mommy with her new squirter

Hanging out in Grandpa's floatie

Running around in Grandma and Grandpa's yard - she was Go Go Go all weekend long!

Daddy Kisses

Caught on camera! This is Dave and Bella's cute little goodbye routine... love her little giggles!

Swimmer Girl!

Arabella is finally confident and happy in the water! She can swim on her own (with the help of her little floaty swimsuit) and is LOVING swimming more and more! Here's a short video of her swimming at the Y with me yesterday.

I have so much more to blog about (my sister's wedding and all the celebrations that go with it)... but I don't have any pictures from it yet, so you'll have to be patient with me. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Miss Arabella

Scenario: Dave is at work, Bella is playing quietly in her room, I get in the shower. I get out of the shower and she is still playing quietly in her room... I think, "oh no, she must be getting into something... she's being too quiet!" So I get my phone ready to take a picture of the huge mess so I can show Dave... and I walk into her room and here's what I see:

When I ask why she has all her friends lined up, she says with a sweet smile... "I'm playing school and I'm the teacher (which sounds more like cheecher). I'm teaching them how to say their ABCs." I leave to go get dressed and I can here her telling her friends, "My mommy is a teacher just like me." :)

Arabella the Dare-devil!

Arabella and I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday and went to the park near our house. It's actually a playground for an elementary school, so the playground equipment is meant for kids over five... Bella hasn't really been able to do a lot of it because it's so big... until today! :) She finally mastered the rock climbing wall and can do it BY HERSELF!!!! She's so daring! Here are a few pictures of my little dare-devil today.

"I did it! I did it all by myself!"

Sleeping in the Hallway

I put Arabella to bed at about 7:15 last night, then Dave and I went outside for a while because it was so nice out. Apparently during this time, Arabella decided to get out of bed and come downstairs. We had the windows open and didn't hear her, so she must not have cried for us... but about two hours later, we found her sleeping on the floor in the hallway. When I told her this morning that I had found a little girl in the hallway last night, she said, "Who was it?" with huge eyes... no clue it was her! :) What a silly little girl! Dave and I couldn't resist turning the hall light on and taking some pictures of our sleeping angel!

Daddy's Little Golfer

Dave got Arabella this little golf club and ball... now that the weather is nice, she wants to play all the time. Dave taught her how to "square up" to the ball and she's got a pretty good swing!

Tea Party!!!!!!

Ever since Christmas when Miss Georgia (Bella's daycare provider) gave her a Fancy Nancy book, we have been having tea party after tea party getting fancy everytime (hats, bracelets, skirts, mommy's shoes, etc.) Sandy has many tiny chairs and Arabella made her tea party set up yet again. Sandy knew about Arabella's love for getting fancy, so she had dress up clothes and jewelry readily available for her to play with. She also made us a reservation at a fancy tea room in Wichita for a real tea party!

This picture is not very good because it was taken with my camera phone, but she was dressed up in Sandy's dress up clothes and jewelry ready to have a tea party! Check out the high heels! :)

Arabella set up this tea party with her stuffed animals and little cupcake holders for her dishes at Sandy and Bill's house.

We are so fancy, I'm sure it's hard for you to recognize us, but Sandy had so many fun hats and jewelry to choose from! The tea room was beautiful and they thought it was so cute that we were all dressed up so fancy!

Here's Sandy looking fancy too!

Grandma fits the part so nicely - she loved the gloves!

Lovely ladies having a tea party!

Sipping tea like a lady!

3 Generations of Fancy Ladies having tea!

Since it was a special occasion, Arabella got to have her own pie - of course she picked chocolate pie! Aren't those gloves adorable? She was so excited to get so fancy! She told us that her bib wasn't fancy so it needed a fancy name. She called it an "English Pib." She's so creative! :) What a fun afternoon! When asked what her favorite part of the tea party was, she said, "Getting fancy. It was lovely."