The Arnolds Online

Last week I had my 2nd ultra sound to see if the placenta has moved away from my cervix and we got some excellent news... Its right where it needs to be! We're very thankful to God for this and so thankful to all of you who prayed for us. It was a blast seeing the baby, so developed and active with personality. We got some amazing shots of her feet and her face. The kids were thrilled to see them when I got home, though a little confused as to why I didn't go have the baby. Ethan has informed us on many occasions that this whole "pregnancy thing" it taking way too long. :) Thank you again for praying for us.

I'm going to try and download the foot picture we got for you later... we'll see how it works.

Some of you have asked about baby a registry; do we have one, where is it and how do you get to it.

We're registered for a few things at both Babies R Us and Target. I know it will shock some of you, since this is our 3rd child, but we actually do need some things. We borrowed quite a few things with our first two and had to give back most of it. Those of you who are interested, you just go to those websites and follow the baby registry instructions. I'm working on linking them from here, but so far... not quite sure I've got it down right. :)

Seems like this blog is so dull these days (aside from the pictures) and so I'm going to try and make up for the lack of posts, but posting a super long one. It would just so happen, we've had a really dull week, so there's not much to write about. I'll try to make it interesting. :)

**This is an update from the original post: Our kids appeared to have a cold over the week, but kept confusing us because the only symptom was raspy throats and Ethan complained that his chest was burning. :( Yesterday his complaining about that concerned me so I called the advice nurse to see what she thought. They never got congested, never ran fevers or anything... so I was kind of worried. After hearing a few things I said, she asked "What city do you live in?" As soon as I said our city name, she answered with "They're not sick, they're reacting to the west nile virus spray!" Turns out, our city (even over the houses and all) were sprayed for the West Nile Virus and gave us NO warning. A friend of ours from chruch confirmed that they sprayed on Tuesday night, which explains why Wednesday morning our kids acted like they had been poisoned. Apparently most cities only get sprayed over the fields, but our entire city gets sprayed, because we're so close to the Delta. Ug. I'm more angry that we got NO warning for this and I'm assuming they don't warn people because they don't want anyone refusing it or putting up a fight. Anyway, the kids seem totally fine now and I'm glad they weren't sick, but I'm not sure that being poisoned is a better option. :-\ Apparently running low grade fevers or throwing up can be symptoms as well.

We had a productive week around the house; I finished setting up the baby's room - hung pictures, organized clothes and put everything where I want it. We're pretty much done with the garage cleaning/organization until our boxes for the backyard stuff get taken out of there. We're hoping to be able to start on the backyard (not we but our landscaper) in August. I can't wait until the fort in the backyard is built... the kids are going to have their own private park back there.

Last night was our Ladies Nite Out at church and we had a fun ice cream sundae/game night. We played Taboo (one of my favorites) and I think the highlight of the night was when I was trying to get them to guess the words Ear Lobes. Between all the words I couldn't say, I was left saying "The place where you put pretties in your child's hearing device." Unfortunately I got most of them off of ear lobes and onto thinking about hearing aids. Anyway... funny moment. I love the Ladies Night Outs. We do them once a month and I especially love them during the summer, because we take a break from our Friday morning Bible study in the summer and this still gives us an opportunity to spend time together. Sadly, the kids and I have not made it to ONE pool play date this summer with our church friends. How terrible is that?! We've either had plans on the days they land on and for a while, I was under the impression that Ethan couldn't go in the water with the tubes in his ears. Last week at his post-op appointment, the surgeon let me know we are free to treat him completely normal and allow water play and all. I was happy to hear that. The ladies at church have been doing a study this summer, but it lands on the same night as our birthing class, so I had to skip it this year. I can't believe we have one month left and all our Bible studies and park/play dates start up again!

Speaking of our birthing class (Bradley Method) we're very much enjoying it! I highly recommend it, to any of you wondering or looking for one. Jason and I have both learned a lot, even though this is going to be our 3rd birthing experience. We're aiming for an all natural birth this time, so we knew these classes would help us go into it a bit more well informed and give us more of a plan than we've had in the past. One of the things I love most about the class is how its kept my diet in very well balance. I've been more uncomfortable during this pregnancy (since we're smack in the middle of the hot summer) but I've been the healthiest during this one. I love that we keep track of especially our protein intake and are making sure I'm getting a very well balanced diet. It really helps keep certain problems out of the pregnancy and its nice knowing our baby is getting good nutrition and will be better off for it.

Tonight my parent's baby sat for us and Jase and I went out to dinner at a favorite spot of ours here in Downtown Brentwood called Gratzie. It feels like a long time since we've gone out alone. We take our kids out to dinner a lot with us and its always fun, but its just so nice being able to talk to each other, on subjects we chose and to not have to help someone else eat. :)

Not sure when I'll post on here again, but I'll do my best. Because I can maintain my website a little easier, I tend to post most of my stuff over there, but I feel bad leaving this one so dull. I need to figure out what I'm going to write about on here. This one also needs new pictures at the top border... are you all sick of the same header pictures you've been looking at for a year?! :)

We have a busy month coming up in August and then September is even busier, followed with our baby's birth, so I'm sure we'll find something to post about over here. Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Lots of pictures have been added! I can't remember now what albums I put them in or what albums I created, but it will probably be obvious. I did add quite a few to the "random July pictures" and then created several new ones. We're also working on finding out how to get the captions that I write above each picture in Flickr, to be above the pictures here on our website. In the mean time, if you want to see captions you have to go to our flickr stream and look there. :)

 

Stef had a Mary Kay party last night, so she suggested the kids and I go run off to Chuck  E. Cheese for a bit - we did so and had a great time.  The 1-token-per-game policy is nice, makes a small amount of cash go quite a way, and the kids mostly like the same stuff.  I learned a couple of things:

• Kids have short attention spans
  
• Rachel isn't quite ready for skee-ball (but Ethan really likes it)
• They both like the game where you shoot water into a hole.  That's probably because of recent potty training.
• Always bring a backup diaper and wipes, even if you're just going out for a bit.
• Even the dumb little 10 ticket prizes can be fun to kids of the right age.
• Don't get a prize for your 2 year old that could even remotely break into pieces that are swallowable

We had a nice time, a couple pix are attached.

Rachel's 2nd birthday is officially over. We had another fun filled weekend and Monday is here again. So funny, how we look forward to the weekends coming (and we act like its because they're so relaxing) and then they come and go so fast because we're so busy during them. :)

Friday night Jason's sister Jenny came over to spend the weekend with us. We had a lot of fun with her and the kids really have enjoyed seeing Aunt Jenny more these days. Rachel loves that Jenny calls her "Princess Rachel" and gets a big kick out of Jenny getting into all the little things that she loves. Saturday Jen baby sat for us and we went to see the new Batman movie - very good, in our opinion. Her final party started at 5pm and we had Jason's side of the family over and our good friend Brock, from Livermore. We hadn't seen Brock in 5 months and it was SO good to catch up with him. All day Sunday, Ethan continued to tell me all the days that "Uncle Brock" is coming over to play with him this week.

Sunday was an awesome day, as usual. Church was great, Frank preached an excellent sermon from Isaiah 24&25 and after church we had some friends over for lunch that we met... get this... online. Yes. This is a sign that you live in the new mellinium -- You meet and become friends with people completely online. We had a blast with the Swensons and enjoyed getting to finally hang out with them in person. Sunday night we had my sister and a friend from church over and we played (of course, the wii) watched a movie and had dinner. Busy weekend, but full of fun. I'm uploading pix in a few minutes.

Have a good week everyone!

On Saturday, Rachel had a special alone date with her Grandpa and Grandma Arnold. They took her to Marine World! She had loads of fun and came home talking about how she rode on Thomas, Harrold, the air balloons, saw the dolphins, sharks and tigers! Her Auntie Jenny went along as well and she adored all the attention she got from her. :)

Jenny stayed at our house Friday and Saturday night and we had lots of fun spending time with her. She lives several hours away, so its always nice being able to spend long amounts of time with her. Anyway, I don't have pictures of the Marine World trip, so you'll just have to take my word for it... she had a blast. :)

Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma!

Today was a big day for us, but a very fun one. We started the morning off going to our church's "ground breaking ceremony" at our new building site. Yep, its official! The ground has been broken, graded and is ready for building! Its very exciting... and we've only been at the church 2 years! Imagine the families that have been waiting for this for 6+ years. We prayed over the site and sang "To God Be the Glory". It was SO fun seeing the land laid out and envisioning how its all going to come together. We also got to see a picture of what the finished product will look like and its gorgeous. I can't wait!

After the gathering there, we all met at our Pastor's ranch for our actual church service. Every year the town our church is in hosts its annual Cornfest and the High School we rent for a church building needs the facility on this weekend, so we have to go elsewhere. It makes for a very different sort of Sunday, but always very fun and eventful. After the service there's a big BBQ/potluck -- we all eat together and the kids get a kick out of playing together at the Griffith Ranch. God was so good and gave us perfect weather for it today. It was breezy and enjoyable. 

For us it was an even busier day and packed full of never ending fun! We came home in time to get ready for Rachel's birthday party with my side of the family. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated with a party tonight. Rachel had SO much fun... we know this because after everyone left she continued walking around the house saying "That party was fun!" This was the first birthday party where we were able to have ALL 6 of her cousins here! Madison and Kyle are here for the week and so they were able to join us. It was cute seeing all 4 girl cousins playing dolls and dress-ups together. I get the biggest kick out of watching them all interact now that they're old enough. We really had a blast. We had pizza, water gun fights, pool time, fun with the wii, presents and cake and ice cream! It was loud, yes... but loads of fun.

Our kids went to bed tonight, both asking for their traditional cup of Rice Milk. I went to the kitchen, filled their cups and by the time I got back to their room... they were both out cold. I uploaded lots of pictures from this morning and this afternoon. This coming weekend we're having a party for her with Jason's side of the family and tomorrow is her "real" birthday, so we'll be living it up big then as well. 

Have a good week!

My organization recently put together a short video talking about peak oil and what exactly it means. Since most people I know have little idea what I do, I figured it might be helpful to repost it here. You can find the original post at Global Public Media.

Our Pastor's 5 year old son, Liam has been in the hospital since July 4th and is in need of your prayers! I attached a link here to Jen's site with all the information you'll need. Please take just a few minutes to read and then pray for him. Sounds like he's already doing better since they've been giving him his heavy doses of Antibiotics, but it would be good to pray for him, until he is well and goes home.

Also, his one of 4 kids and so his other siblings are in between home and staying with relatives in Napa. Jen is also a couple months pregnant, so please keep her (and baby) in your prayers as well. The Lord knows every detail, so don't worry if you've never met them. :)