I'm Cold

So it snowed yesterday.  Which is cool, I guess.  Seeing as it only happens every few years.  It would have been a lot cooler if it would have happened in December.  Then I would have been like over the top excited.  But since it's February, I was just kinda meh.  Because I am SO OVER WINTER!  Seriously, OVER IT!  We're actually HAVING a winter in Texas this year, and it's cold EVERY DAY, and I DON'T LIKE IT!  I don't like it AT ALL!  Every day Dustin comes home from work, and we have this same conversation:

Jenni:  Do you know what I'm over?
Dustin:  Let me guess... winter?
Jenni:  YES!  I HATE WINTER!  I AM SO COLD!

Now usually I'm one of those positive people who, even though winter isn't my favorite, will try to enjoy it anyways and focus on the good stuff associated with it.  But I guess that's because I'm used to MILD winters, and this winter is actually COLD EVERY DAY, and I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!  I've worn all my cute sweaters and boots.  I've sat around a fire.  I've drank hot chocolate and have eaten plenty of stew and chili.  I've gone hunting with Dustin.  I've watched movies while being all cozy under blankets.  I'VE DONE ALL THE THINGS!

I am cold.  Have I mentioned that?  I'm cold right now.  Because my house was built in the 1870s and has the suckiest insulation ever, so even when I'm inside with the heater on, I'm cold and have to wear a jacket.  Seriously.  I feel coldness coming in through all my doors and windows.  Also, something really strange is happening.  I go to bed every night wearing socks because, you know, I'm cold.  But I wake up every morning with no socks on, and not only do I have no recollection of taking them off, but I can never find them!  I'M RUNNING OUT OF SOCKS!  WHERE ARE MY SOCKS?  Dustin swears he's not messing with me.  WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I know now that I would NEVER EVER EVER be able to live anywhere more north of where I live now, and I'm actually strongly considering moving even closer to the equator.  And yes, I'm aware that all of my northern-living friends and family think I'm ridiculous right now.  I DON'T CARE!  But really people... how do y'all do it?

Also, I was really pissed off at that stupid groundhog for seeing his stupid shadow.  That bastard.  My ten day forecast depresses me.

So anyways it snowed yesterday.  And even though I was like whatever, it's February, I live in Texas and should be wearing shorts right now, it WAS the first time it's snowed here in Eden's lifetime, so okay, it was kinda special.  When she woke up, I took her outside and was all, "Look Eden, that's snow!"

 

Yes, I'm aware that that is NOTHING, but that amount of snow actually IS a big deal where I live.

At first she was excited.

naturally, the only picture I took where she's actually looking at the camera and smiling turned out blurry.

 

But she must take after me because after about five minutes, she was OVER IT as well.  Because her hands got cold from touching the snow.  Because she doesn't own gloves.  And she started saying, "Inside, inside, inside!"  So what's a mom to do when her child is freezing and miserable and wants to go inside?  Duh, take a picture because she is so cute!

 

We went in right after this, and I put her in a warm bubble bath. 

 

I'm fantasizing about the day that's it's once again sunny and warm and we spend our days outside.  In the meantime, I'm doing my best to keep Eden entertained inside.  Other than the snow day, she actually doesn't seem to mind the cold and is willing to play outside in it.  But I'm a giant pansy and can't handle it.  I sucked it up and took her to the park a few weeks ago.  I only lasted fifteen minutes before I insisted on leaving.  Fortunately the girl just had Christmas and a birthday so we do have lots of stuff to play with.  And when that gets old, we paint and bake cookies and take bubble baths in the middle of the afternoon.  Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE being a stay at home mom?  I mean of course because I get to be with Eden.  But also a little bit because I can take bubble baths in the middle of a cold afternoon.

 

And sometimes, we just watch a lot of episodes of Mickey Mouse. 

 

 

 

 

So Eden can pretty much identify every single animal ever.  She can't necessarily say the names, but the girl can seriously point out every animal.  She can identify everything from a horse and cow and all the farm animals to a rhinoceros and cheetah and all the African animals to a whale and shark and octopus and all the water creatures.  Then she knows random ones like a snow leopard.  I didn't even know a snow leopard was a thing until recently, but Eden can find it in a book for you.  I think it's impressive.  Eden is a late talker and compared to other kids her age, she doesn't talk much, but for whatever reason, she will do any animal noise that you tell her.  My two current favorites are when she hisses like a snake and roars like a dinosaur. 

 

When I took Eden to her two year checkup, the pediatrician referred us to a cardiologist because of the way Eden's heart murmur sounded.  We've known she's had a heart murmur from the time we were in the hospital when she was born, and I've never worried about it because I know so many people who have heart murmurs who are perfectly fine.  Even though the pediatrician said it was PROBABLY nothing, I couldn't help but be a little worried as we headed to Texas Children's Hospital for them to run a bunch of tests on Eden.  It turns out Eden's heart is completely and perfectly fine... she just has a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loud, obvious heart murmur according to the cardiologist.  He said it was one of the loudest he's ever heard.  Eden thought the whole thing was great fun because they put "stickers" on her, and she got to watch Mickey Mouse during her ultrasound.

 

 

She was pretty dang cute in the hospital gown that she had to wear for the duration of our visit too.

 

 

You know, there's nothing like a couple of days spent at Texas Children's Hospital to literally make you fall down on your knees and thank God for your healthy child.

 

We hosted our annual Super Bowl party on Sunday, and Eden got to spend time with her second cousin, Peyton.  Staying home with me, Eden obviously doesn't get the chance to be around other kids very often.  But on Sunday, she made her very first little friend.  This was the first time that I've ever witnessed Eden actually interact so much with another kid.  Even when we have playdates, Eden is perfectly content just playing NEXT to another kid but not really WITH them.  It's what she's used to, I guess.  But on Sunday, Eden and Peyton were talking to each other and copying each other and chasing each other and running around together and just laughing their heads off, and it made my heart SO HAPPY.  It was precious, and I loved how happy Eden was.

 

 

A few more of my favorite iPhone photos from the past few days because I've been too lazy to do much with my nice camera lately...  (I blame winter.)

I love watching Eden while she sleeps.  I love everything about it.  I love the noises she makes.  I love how soft her skin is.  I love how she smells of soap and lavender oil.  There's really nothing sweeter than a sleeping child.

 

Happy 52nd birthday to my dad yesterday!

 

Well I'm off to put on another sweatshirt.  Because have I mentioned that I'm cold?

Eden's 2nd Birthday!

When Eden turned one, I was so upset.  When Eden turned two, not at all!  I am SO DANG EXCITED about this coming year.  In my opinion, it doesn't get much cuter than two.  I am so looking forward to watching her vocabulary and personality blossom.  Ahhhhhh, seriously so happy that I have a two year old!

We had the sweetest day on Eden's birthday.  Of course, I had it all planned out in my head for weeks leading up to it, but unlike Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when nothing went the way I had planned, everything was perfect on Eden's second birthday!

When she woke up that morning, her room was filled with balloons.

She ran around kicking them.  I have the cutest video of her doing it on my phone.  But I have no idea how to ever get videos from my phone onto the computer!

Then I brought her downstairs so that she could see her present from me and Dustin - her very own kitchen!

A lot of my pictures seem to have animals in them.

I bought Eden's kitchen MONTHS ago.  It's been out in the shop, in a box, in a thousand million pieces.  All week leading up to her birthday, I was all, "Dustin, can you please put the kitchen together?  Dustin, I want her to see it when she wakes up that morning, will you put it together tonight?  Dustin, Eden's birthday is in two days, when are you going to put her kitchen together?  Dustin, I think it's going to take a lot longer than you think, you may wanna go ahead and start doing it.  Dustin, please just put the kitchen together so we don't have to worry about it."  And he was all, "yeah, yeah, yeah".  I was so tired the night before Eden's birthday and announced to Dustin and my mom (who was here helping me get things ready for Eden's party) that I was going to bed EARLY that night.  But of course, that's when Dustin finally decided to drag out the kitchen to put together.  Then he saw that there were a thousand million pieces and told me that it was a two person job.  You can imagine, I was not pleased.  "ARE YOU KIDDING ME I'VE BEEN ASKING YOU TO PUT THIS STUPID THING TOGETHER FOR DAYS AND YOU WOULDN'T DO IT AND NOW WHEN I'M TIRED AND WANT TO GO TO BED BECAUSE WE HAVE A BIG DAY TOMORROW YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME STAY UP AND HELP YOU WHEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY!!!!!"  It took HOURS to put together.  There was a lot of cussing.  We had to open a bottle of wine to make it through.  Good times. 

Moving on... while Eden was playing with her new kitchen, I made pancakes.  Then we sang Happy Birthday to our girl.

She took a few bites of pancakes and then wanted peas.

Birthday girls always get what they want.

Shortly after breakfast, the bouncy house for Eden's party arrived, and Eden and I got to play on it for about an hour before guests started arriving for her party.

**** important to notice:  Eden can now have ponytails!  Spoiler Alert:  It did not survive to the end of the party.

We had the sweetest little ladybug party.  The weather was perfect.  Dustin made amazinnngggg hamburgers.  Eden had tons of little friends to run around with.  We are so thankful to all of our friends and family who came to celebrate our precious girl with us.  Here are a few of the many, MANY pictures from the day.

I was in love with her cake!  I am so happy with how it turned out.  I seriously stressed about this cake.  I knew I wouldn't have time that morning to go pick it up, so I sent my dad.  I was so nervous that it wasn't going to survive the twenty-five minute drive and two railroad track crossings.  I even had a dream a few days before the party that her cake didn't make it.  But it did, and it was beautiful.  And delicious.

 loved these little guys

Drake - always wanting to get in on the action.

While she was opening gifts, I kept thinking to myself, "I'm so glad I have a girl!"  I think I was almost as excited as she was about all the Minnie Mouse and Disney Princess and pink stuff!

 trying out her first pair of high heels (she did pretty good; I was impressed!)

 

After all of our party guests went home, Eden spent the afternoon playing with her new toys and jumping a little bit more in the bouncy house.  Eden had one heck of a good day, and she fell asleep that evening at 5:45 and didn't wake up until 7:15 the next morning!

 

A few hours after Eden's party ended, we found out that Dustin's grandmother had passed away.  It was not a shock; we knew it was coming.  She was ninety-six years old and suffering from Alzheimer's.  God knew what He was doing when He brought her home on Eden's birthday.  I find it so incredibly sweet and comforting that it happened on that day.  It seemed to make Eden's new little life all the more precious.  When I found out, I was so happy for Nanny - her suffering had ended and she was reunited with her husband.  She was a remarkable woman, and we will miss her.  I'm pretty sure it was from her that Dustin inherited his amazing cooking skills.

 

Eden ended up getting to wear my Christmas dress from way back when after all.

Blurry iPhone photos are the best I could manage that day.  And she has crazy hair from sleeping in her carseat.

 

And now we head into the year of two.  YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!



My Girl is Gonna Be 2!

I keep looking back at pictures of the past year as Eden gets closer and closer to 2.  Out of the over one thousand (wow!) pictures that I took this past year, these are my favorite pictures and moments of Eden as a one year old.  What a sweet year it was!


Jennifer Hargrave's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow