Favorite Moments

At least once a day, I have a major freak-out about Eden's future - about the world she is growing up in, the world she is going to live in.  Every time I turn on the TV or get on the internet, there's more bad things happening in this country, in this world.  At night I lay in bed, and it's a struggle - I constantly try to pray and hand everything over to God, and it works for a while, and I stop worrying, satisfied with the knowledge that God is in control.... Until the next time that I turn on the TV or get on the internet, and the cycle starts all over.

I remind myself to just take it day by day.  Right now, today, in this hour, we are okay, we are happy.  So sometimes I just have to tune out the big, scary stuff and focus on the little, happy moments.

A few of my favorite moments from the last couple of weeks:

She would swing all day if she could.

A little rain won't keep us from playing outside.

Eden "bakes" while Mama bakes.  And me allowing her to make this mess in my kitchen shows JUST HOW MUCH I wanted oatmeal cookies!

 helping Daddy pick up all the golf balls in the yard after we got done hitting them

Somebody got to lick the spoon after Mama made brownies.

 She is so excited about her new tunnel.

Eden - 15 Months

Whose bright idea was it to continue taking monthly pictures of Eden this second year too?

We had quite the struggle this morning to JUST SIT IN THE FREAKING CHAIR!!!  She was so mad at me.  All she wanted to do was run around, and I kept picking her back up and putting her in the chair.  Finally, I just gave up.  As soon as I let her up, she happily ran around for a while, and then...

She climbed into the chair all by herself and let me take a picture.

There's a lesson for me here, I just know it!

Then she practiced her ballerina moves while Max supervised.

So my favorite thing that Eden does at 15 months?  She kisses me!  When I say "Eden, give Mama a kiss", she happily plants her little mouth on my cheek.  And I melt.  Every. Single. Time.

I'm enjoying so much watching her continue to discover the world around her.

I'm constantly amazed (and sometimes scared) at just how smart babies are.  I never really know how much she's taking in since she can't talk to me.  There are objects that I've sat down with her and taught her the name of, so she brings me her Minnie Mouse when I say "mouse", she goes and finds her sippy cup when I say "water", and she flaps her arms up and down and says "fi, fi" when you ask her what a bird does (Granny actually taught her that one).  I love when she catches on to all of these things that we tell her.  But then there are times that she shows me just how much she is soaking up things that I'm not teaching her... like the other day when I saw her pointing the remote at the TV and pushing buttons, trying to get it to turn on, and I'm like, is she seriously doing what I think she's doing?  I hardly EVER even turn the TV on.  That's when I'm kinda scared (in a good way) because I know we need to start being very conscious of what we say and do in front of her.  Last night Max ran into the house before I had given him permission, so I gave him a little hit and said "bad".  Eden marched over to him, started saying "BA, BA" and hit him about five times.  WHOOPS!  It was seriously so cute though that I couldn't help but laugh so hard.  I think Max actually enjoyed the attention.

She keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

little country girl

Happy Belated Easter

He is still risen.  Hallelujah!

I've been sitting in church on Easter for years looking at all the little kids dressed in their Easter best and praying that one day I would have a little girl of my own to dress up for Easter Sunday.  Getting Eden's Easter outfit together made me feel like such an adult.  Buying her brand new white shoes that are just a little bit big on her right now so that she can wear them all summer felt like such a rite of passage as a mom.

Easter Sunday was everything I hoped it would be.  Last Easter, Eden's first Easter, was, of course, extremely special.  But I was more excited about this one - the one that she would participate in.

adorable-ness

The Easter bunny brought Eden beach stuff this year.  A shovel and pail, beach toys, a new bathing suit...

Eden participated in her first Easter egg hunt at church on Sunday, and the girl was seriously born to hunt eggs.  I thought I would have to walk along with her, pick up an egg and show her that it went in the basket, etc.  Nope.  The kids took off, Eden watched them for a second, then picked up her basket and took off after them.  She saw an egg, shouted "ball", put it right into her basket and proceeded to fill that basket up!

When she didn't see any more eggs on the ground, she walked straight up to a big ol' three year old boy and tried to steal eggs out of his basket!

After church we spent the day at my Granny and Pops' house with my dad's side of the family.  Dustin boiled crawfish.  We ate and ate and ate.  We took pictures in the bluebonnets.  We relaxed.  It was a great afternoon.

 Eden with her cousin Rylen

 getting some flowers from Uncle Harold

Eden and her Poppa James

*****

Eden is obsessed with her cousin Rylen.  She can't stay away from him.  She wants to touch him, hold him, hug him... Never mind the fact that at five months he is seriously almost as big as her, she tries to pick him up when he's laying on the floor.  It's so precious.

hahahahaha!