all about Peyton

Peyton fell asleep holding her foot on the way home from daycare yesterday. Isn't that so cute!? How do babies do that?



video of Peyton crawling

Make sure you check out the video below. It's funny!

Pastor's wives making a point...

a video clip by a couple of pastor's wives, "Before he speaks."

Carpet is Glorious

The last few days have been pretty good at the Arredondo household. Saturday, we bought an AWESOME carpet remnant. Words can't express how excited I am about this remnant of carpet that we got from the warehouse of a carpet store across town. It obviously doesn't take much to get me excited, I know, but Peyton can finally get down on the floor and play! And she's loving it...crawling around (which by the way, she started doing this weekend), pulling up to a standing position... It's glorious!!! She's entertained for long stretches of time, and she doesn't have to be held the whole time! Marvelous! We have hardwood floors throughout the whole apartment, so the carpet was a must. And speaking of the carpet store, the man that sold us the carpet, Darrell, just lost his job a few weeks ago. This seems to be happening a lot lately...people getting laid off, or not getting any hours. It's kind of scary. We just need to trust God to keep providing for us. :)

The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. Psalm 145:17-20

On Memorial Day, Arnold and I celebrated with more day dates. Shoney's for breakfast, the mall, Magazine Street for coffee and leisure, and Frock Candy for a cute summer dress for me, and grilling out for supper. Thanks Arnold! He would have rather been at the movies, but I had a blast!

I will post a video of Peyton crawling on our new carpet tomorrow. Stay tuned....

The Eyelid

Last Friday when we were heading to Monroe, Peyton did something that really freaked me out. Arnold and his family had a good old time laughing about it, but it was freaky to me. So, we're riding down the interstate, and I was sitting in the back with Peyton. Peyton is forever rubbing her eyes, so much that I wonder if she doesn't have allergies or something. Well, I happen to look over at her and her eyelid was flipped inside out. She was just staring at me like nothing was wrong. YUCK! It was all veiny and well, GROSS! IT WAS THE INSIDE OF HER EYELID FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I start yelling at Arnold to "pull over cause something's wrong with her eye!!!" I was panicking a little bit. He slams on breaks (luckily there was no one close behind us) and pulls over on the shoulder. By the time he pulled over, her eyelid had somehow fixed itself, and then I calmed down, but Arnold was still like, "WHAT?! WHAT IS IT?! WHAT'S WRONG?!!!!" Later, he told me that it's nothing to worry about, that older kids, especially little boys, do this all the time. Well I don't like it, and if she ever does it again on purpose when she's older, she's going to be in trouble.

The Purse and Other Pictures

My new purse (see post below) Arnold did a good job!

This weekend we went to Monroe to visit Arnold's family and to see Arnold's niece graduate from high school. We had a great time. Here are some pics.


Arnold's niece Ashley just graduated from high school. Her parents surprised her with an Explorer.


Peyton and her Pa-Paw (Arnold's dad).


Peyton was so exhausted that she fell asleep on her Ma-Maw (Arnold's mom).


Peyton with her cousin Katelyn. They're already good buddies. :)


It looks like Katelyn is telling Peyton a secret.

Peyton and Arnold's mom

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our three year wedding anniversary! It's already been good. :) This morning, Arnold brought me fresh flowers, a cute purse that I said I liked several weeks ago, and some new music to listen to. He's so thoughtful! What a great surprise this morning, especially since I woke up with a sore throat. It's hard to believe that it's already been three years. We got married on a beautiful, gorgeous day in South Carolina. It rained the WHOLE week before the wedding, which was scary since we were planning on having an outdoor reception. Then on Friday afternoon, right before the rehearsal, it cleared up. We had a beautiful but simple wedding, and enjoyed every minute of it. Ooh...I can taste that wedding cake now...strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. Doesn't that sound good?! It was! Then we left for our honeymoon...a cruise to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico (our favorite). Such great memories! I wish that I could post pictures, but *gasp!* our wedding was shot with a film camera, not digital! Arnold is a wonderful, patient, and fun husband. We have so much in common and are so alike that it's scary sometimes. But he has put up with a lot from me :) And I am blessed to be married to him! I love you! Happy Anniversary!!!

The Daycare

I am probably going to be forever banned from the daycare. I did something terrible today, and I feel really bad. Since I had a few minutes left today on my lunch break, I thought I would walk over to the daycare and see Peyton. Well, of course she was awake when I got over there even though from 12-2 is their naptime. I looked at her through the glass (her crib is right by the door and the glass window), and then the worker opened the door. I just had to poke my big ol' head through the door to see her. She saw me, and then she started to cry. So then, I went in and picked her up. I held her for a few minutes but then had to get back to work. I put her down and then it started...the screaming. Every baby in her room was asleep until that moment. Two babies woke up crying, and on that note, I had to leave before it got worse. I just envision the whole class waking up crying because of me. I'm sure that worker was calling down curses on me. I'm embarassed to go over there and pick her up...hmm...maybe I'll send Arnold to do it.

"Television--The Great Life Waster?"

This is an excerpt from a book I'm reading by John Piper entitled, Don't Waste Your Life. I thought it was interesting. What do you think?

"Television is one of the greatest life-wasters of the modern age. And, of course, the Internet is running to catch up, and may have caught up. You can be more selective on the Internet, but you can also select worse things with only the Judge of the universe watching. TV still reigns as the great life-waster. The main problem with TV is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem. Just the ads are enough to sow fertile seeds of greed and lust, no matter what program you're watching. The greater problem is banality. A mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow that the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacity of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels.

So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud--just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 movies in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend--woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more."

A Labor of Love

My mom is going to freak out if she reads this post, and here's why....I hate to sweep and mop. I know, I know, sweeping and mopping is loads of fun for most people, but I just really don't enjoy doing it. So last night at 10 o'clock when I decided to sweep and mop, it was all about a labor of love and a disgust for a certain pest. Keep reading. By 10, I'm usually in bed these days. I am actually thouroughly exhausted by about 7 every night, though Peyton is always raring to go, but that's a little too early to go to bed. No, last night I discovered bites all over Peyton's back and then a dead flea fell on my hand. Now this disgusts me beyond belief. I LOATHE fleas (almost as much as BIG, HUGE, NASTY roaches). I think I hate them so much because we used to get them in our house when I was growing up. But we had outside dogs that would get them, and then they would jump on our legs for a free ride into the house. It would take us forever to get rid of them, and we usually had to set off "bombs". One time we just went on vacation and came back and they were gone. I guess they didn't have any fresh meat to bite on that week. You couldn't sit down on the floor, and I always felt gross in my own house. I hate them. SO, this is why I was sweeping and mopping the hard wood floors at 10 last night because I don't want those nasty creatures biting my beautiful baby. And you know, we don't have any animals, and neither do our neighbors. Why are these things torturing me???? Does anyone have any ideas of how to get rid of them? We had them last year too. Help.

Happy Mother's Day

I had an interesting Mother's Day yesterday. Let's see, it started out with Peyton banging her head on my rollers and getting a nice little cut right before we had baby dedication at church. She did really good for the baby dedication though. While we were singing Jesus Loves Me standing in front of the church, she raised her little hand and was holding it up, almost like she was praising Jesus! She received a pretty little white New Testament, and I got a rose.
After church we were supposed to go have brunch at a friend's house, but they had to cancel. Well, I had no plans for lunch, so Arnold suggested McDonald's, and then I said a BIG, "HECK NO!" So instead he ran to Rouses and got a pink rotissiri chicken that I had to take back thirty minutes later. I thought they timed those chickens! Why was it pink?!
Arnold then left to work on his paper that's due Wednesday. So for most of the afternoon, Peyton and I rocked out to some vintage DC Talk...duh duh down with the DC Talk.... Actually, I was straigtening up the house while she sat in her swing and stared out the window while banging her toy on the tray. Then we went for a long walk around campus. She fell asleep in her pink cadillac(see picture below), so I kept on a strollin!
Last night we went to our small group which was just down the street and enjoyed burritos...Peyton had the pureed carrots (one of her favorites). So all in all, it was a pretty good Mother's Day, although I miss my mother and grandmothers and wish I could have been in SC to see them.

There are some pictures below.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother and Daughter after church


My gift from Arnold and Peyton

New Pics of Peyton

This is her new pink cadillac. We were on our way to the preschool this morning.


She's ready to eat in her new highchair.




Peyton checking out the flowers at Audubon Park.




Peyton enjoying the park.


Little baby Gabriel (see post below)

New Baby

Yesterday I had a hard day at work, so for supper we went to Chick-Fil-A at the mall. Peyton got to ride in her "pink cadillac"--a pretty pink polka dot stroller we bought her this weekend. I'll post a picture of her in the stroller later. After eating, we went to see our friends Kathrene and Arnold at the hospital. Kathrene had a baby boy, Gabriel, yesterday morning at 9:25. He has a head full of dark hair. Actually, I thought Peyton was going to have hair like that when she was born, but she just had normal baby hair fuzz. At least that's what it looked like to me, but not anymore. I think Peyton bopped little Gabriel on the head once. She seems to like to smack other little babies when she gets a chance. She gets the aggression from her daddy. :)
As we walked through the halls of East Jefferson Hospital last night, I kept thinking about Peyton and the fact that she was born in that same hospital 7 months ago! It's hard to believe that 7 months have already gone by so fast. And then when I was holding their little baby, I had a hard time imagining Peyton ever being that small. She's growing up. :( But she's so much fun now!

"Not Another Picture!"

Saturday was to be a great day! I gave Peyton a bath early, got her all pretty, and off we went to Sears Portrait Studio. As we walked in the studio, Peyton was all smiles, cheesing for all the customers and staff. We noticed her picture on the wall and had a proud moment...awww. Then we made our way to studio "B" for the new, angelic pictures our daughter would make. HAHA! YEAH RIGHT! She fussed and cried the whole time! We maybe got five halfway decent pictures. We ended up leaving early because she wouldn't cooperate and got NO pictures. :( Peyton's not big on strangers these days, and she only wanted to be held by mommy. Maybe we'll try again in a few weeks.