Adventures with the Elams

Sands of Time

2012-02-11T22:17:00.000-08:00

So, I have to confess, sometimes I look at the girls and get so sad that they are growing so darn fast. I seriously feel like I blinked and Eden was all of a sudden a little lady. To be perhaps a little TOO honest here, I will confess that the week after I got home from the hospital with Grace, after everyone left, I went to do Eden's hair for the first time since the baby was born. Mind you, it had only been about 5 days since I had done it, but all of a sudden I started to cry and just looked up at Brandon and stammered that her hair had grown so long in the past week and now I didn't know how to do it. Ok- yes. Even I can agree that it was ridiculous and more than likely largely due to the crazy amount of hormones raging through me just days after delivering Grace. But in complete and sober honesty- there are times when it feels like the girls really are growing THAT fast, too fast, and that time is simply slipping through my fingers like grains of sand, impossible to be kept.

It's funny, it seems like people always love to say that to moms- that we have to enjoy the time with our little ones because it goes so fast. That before we know it they are grown. Recently there was an article passed around Facebook written by a battle-weary mother talking about the normal struggles of being a mom, and how sick she got of people telling her to 'enjoy it, because it goes so quickly." The article was funny, she talked about how people always manage to say that when the kids are on your every last nerve and you are about to explode-- and how sometimes it just didn't make sense to 'savor ALL the moments: To read the article, and for a good laugh, click HERE.

The article was funny, and I related to a lot of it. And it just so happened that we had a week like made it all the more relevant. You know, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week-- a week when savoring EVERY.SINGLE.MOMENT was pretty much impossible or even, flat out CrAzY. Like Monday when Eden decided to throw a 'run through the house, ear-shattering tantrum' about everything from the DVR breaking and not being able to watch Elmo to not being able to throw her xylaphone into the tiles in mommy's bathroom and waking the baby right before naptime. And Grace blowing out a diaper on my pants and spitting up all over herself just as I am finishing getting her all cleaned up, and then peeing on me in the 10 seconds it took to walk 15 feet from the nursery to the bathroom when I decided to just throw in the towel and bath her, thus leaving me covered in poo, spit up, and pee, all before11:00 in the morning. Ah yes. The endless joys of motherhood. So, yes. Of course I can agree that motherhood has its difficult moments or days, or heck, weeks even- but the hard truth is that it does go pretty fast, and somehow having little ones makes it painfully obvious as each new month brings something new and something changed. As we usher in the fun and exciting new, we have to let go of some of the sweet and precious olds.

So, the only way I know how to deal with all the change is to seek out and savor precious moments in each day; like when I can dance around the bathroom and sing "You Make My Dreams Come True" with the radio to the girls, thankful that I am here with them every day. Even the hard ones. Or maybe, especially on the hard ones when they just need a little time to take things slower.

And of course: capture all I can on camera! Here are our recent favorites:

Eden is talking more and more these days and starting to say phrases and sentences. The other night as we were coming home from dinner she was playing a game with daddy where he would tell her "I love you," and she would say "I love you," and then he would say, "No, I love YOU!" and this went back and forth some amid ample giggles from the backseat. So I decided to join in and turned around and said that I loved her, and she said it back, so I said "Eden, can you say 'I love you mommy'?" And she says "I love daddy! (giggle, giggle, giggle)" What?!! Little stinker! And yet, how could I do anything but laugh?

She is such fun to watch play. She has recently started mimicking things she sees around the house. Her all time favorite toy happens to be the baby swing right now. She turns on the music, puts lovey to sleep in it, and climbs in it (all of this with or without baby Grace being inside it. Yes, I have to watch her pretty closely when the baby is sleeping). She loves singing Happy Birthday and ALWAYS ends the song by 'blowing' to blow out the candles. She actually told us "happy birthday" this morning as we were heading out to run errands. Haha! Here is a picture of a photo session of her own she arranged right after we finished taking pictures of Grace:

And here are some precious videos of her saying her animal noises and counting:

As for Grace, our little jelly bean is growing by leaps and bounds herself. She was up to 9lbs 10oz at her one month pediatric appointment last week! She is still in newborn diapers and clothes, but I sadly don't think it will be too much longer before she is out of them. She has started cooing and talking to us a little and gave daddy her first real smile today. She is an absolute joy-- she is so good and really pretty easy. She does so well running errands, but we have noticed that if she has spent too much time in the carseat or on her own, she will let you know that it's time for snuggles. : )

Daddy gave her her first bottle last week. I think she was pretty satisfied, because she slept through the night following it!

Here is some precious video of her inchworming before bed:

Watch me grow!

All that growing sure makes a girl tired!

Around the House

2012-02-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to believe Grace is already a month old! She is such a joy and we are enjoying her so very much. After we figured out that she had trouble with dairy in my diet and eliminated it, she has become quite the happy baby! She loves to take baths and kicks her little legs and wiggles around, and she does really well during tummy time. Like her big sister she is strong! She also picked up her head to look me in the face on her first day of life and has only gotten stronger since then. She can pick her head up and look around while she is on our shoulders as well as tummy time. She does seem to have a cranky period at about 9:30pm most nights and definitely still like to have her snuggles, but for the most part, she is really pretty laid back. We love her so!

Here are some favorite pictures of the last couple weeks:

All dressed up in her party outfit!

Look at that sweet belly!

First day at church!

Watch me grow:

As for Eden, she is a great big sister! She really likes Grace and has continued to share her favorite toys and treasures with her and she often asks to hold her.

Checking out the baby's tiny hands and feet.

Sharing her treasures...

Since Christmas, I've been trying and trying to get some good pictures of Eden. I had such high hopes of getting some beautiful Christmas and First Birthday shots, as well as shots of the girls together once Grace arrived. Unfortunately, Eden has recently decided that she is camera shy and is NOT willing to be photographed or filmed. I did manage to get this hilarious video that demonstrates why there is such a lack of good photos of her:

Since most of our photos result in this type of battle, I largely had to give up on most of the shots I wanted for the time being, though it doesn't prevent me from trying. After about an hour and half session trying to get a shot of both girls, these are about the best that I got!

As far as Grace, she is really not the best at photo shoots herself! As I mentioned in the last post, she gave the newborn photographer a tough time getting shots, and things go about the same for me at home, which also doesn't prevent me from trying! Here is one of my favorite shots of her that I was determined to get! She was supposed to be asleep of course, but since we are talking about Grace, this was about the best we were gonna get!

And here's a special behind the scenes look at the second take at the photo shoot above:

Yep-- Grace decided the guitar picture (taken at 3 weeks) was the perfect time to roll over for the first time. Following these action shots, she proceeded to barrel-roll down the front of the guitar across the strings and onto the floor. Mommy almost had a heart attack, but after one good, quick, loud cry and some snuggles, Grace was perfectly fine. And that marked the end of the shoot and therby determined the earlier session was the keeper. : )

Overall, I'd have to say we are LOVING being a family of four! As far as I'm concerned, two girls is twice the fun! Um- especially in the clothes buying department. : o

Three Weeks!

2012-01-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Grace is almost 3 weeks old! Time flies when you are having fun (and getting no sleep, apparently!)
She is quite a lot different from Eden, though we certainly see some similarities. For one thing, she is an INCREDIBLY light sleeper! It's not really noise that bothers her (fortunately), but you simply cannot touch her when she is sleeping. We had the biggest struggle getting her newborn photos taken because everytime she is touched or repositioned, she wakes up! The photographer spent 3 hours for one sitting and another 4 at the next and we still didn't get all the shots we wanted.

Both my girls really love to snuggle, but I'd say Grace maybe a little more than Eden, even. She can hardly stand to be awake if she is not being held and cuddled. And I guess mom's a huge softie, because I generally give in and snuggle her.

She is such a darling and we have been enjoying getting to know her!
Here are some of my favorite pics from the hospital and Grace's first weeks at home:

Grandaddy and Eden having fun in the hospital...

First picture at home!

Celebrating her first New Year's Eve! Happy 2012 everyone!

Eden has been doing so well with baby Grace. The first week we had a couple times when she would wake up from a nap or bedtime and come running into the living room all excited and then see the baby and look visibly dissapointed that she is still here, but she's getting used to her now and likes to call her 'baby doll' and pet her head. So sweet!

Snuggles...

Sweetness...

Tiny hands and feet...

First bath

Big sister is such a big help- she likes to bring baby Grace her hat and paci, and even shares her toys...

Of course, the first time she decided to 'share', she did so by dropping a toy train on the baby's head. She does a great job now of sharing by putting the toys on the baby's feet...

Around the house...

Our little inchworm, all ready for bed. She really doesn't like to lay flat, so we often get her asleep, then ease her into the pack n' play only to have her start 'pterodactyl-ing' (if you have ever had a newborn, you will know what this means) and raising her legs up and down-which looks like an inchworm when she's all swaddled up. This usually results in mom and dad caving and moving her to a Boppy infant pillow...

Watch me grow! These pics are all taken in preemie outfits. She is so tiny!

Sleeping angel...

All Things Beautiful

2012-01-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

"He has made everything beautiful in its time." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

Welcome Grace Sterling Elam

December 28th, 2011

1:07am

7lbs 4 oz

18 3/4 inches long

The story of sweet Grace's birth is nothing short of miraculous. Going all the way back to April, God's hand has been evident throughout her entire pregnancy and birth. From the difficult decision Brandon and I faced about whether or not to begin trying again for a baby in April immediately after our loss, finding out that Grace shared a due date with her big sister, surviving a heavy bleeding episode at 10 weeks, to feeling those first reassuring baby kicks at only 14weeks, God has been faithful to provide us with a peace that passes understanding, and a constant reminder that He, and not us, was in control throughout the entire pregnancy and birth process. God's hand was no less evident in her arrival! His timing was absolutely PERFECT.

Ever since we found out we were expecting in April, Brandon and I have been a little worried that Grace would try to come on either Christmas Eve, Christmas, or Eden's birthday. I told everyone that we didn't really care when she came as long as she waited until the 28th to do so! And as the day grew closer, I actually kind of decided that the 28th would be a really incredible day for her to come since each girl would still have her own special day, but would also be able to share their birthday celebrations. I could just picture all of us taking family trips to celebrate together or the two of them doing special things to celebrate when they are older. So, I was pretty hopeful and excited when I started having contractions at 5:30 in the evening of Eden's birthday.

Since we had pretty confusing false labor the week before, I was a little gun-shy to call the Doula back out until I was pretty sure it was the real thing, even though she warned me about this when she left last time. The trouble was, the contractions started at 2 minutes apart, and they were fairly intense from the get-go, so I found it difficult to assess whether they were getting 'worse'. After monitoring them for an hour or so while we took Eden for a walk in her wagon, we did call the Doula to let her know what was going on. We all decided to just keep an eye on the contractions and see if they intensified. So, we went home and bathed Eden and Brandon fed her dinner while I tried out some positions to see if the contractions would continnue. After Eden went to bed I started to think that things were beginning to get rather painful and the contractions were still between 2 to 4 minutes apart in length. Around 9:30 I called our wonderful Doula Sharon and told her I thought this was it this time, so she headed our way. Meanwhile we alerted my parents about what was going on and told them to be ready if we called.

I started to get dressed. As I was doing so, I became overwhelmed with emotion and as I processed everything, began crying. I cried tears of grief for the baby we lost that we never got to meet, and I cried tears of joy for the baby we were about to. And I cried tears of wonder at the glory of God's timing- it just seemed so perfect.

Sharon arrived around 10:15 and determined that this probably was the real thing. We decided to wait 45 minutes or so and check again to get a gauge on timing. I called my parents and told them we would call them in 45 minutes to let them know when to come over and went back to doing some labor positions. A few minutes later Sharon told me to tell her when I had my 'worst' contraction, and I replied that the last two had been it, so we decided to check again. This time Sharon calmly said-- "if you want to be safe, it's time to go." So I ask, "Ok-- so can I call my parents and have them start over here?" To which she replies, "No-- Eden is going to have to come with us."

Let the frenzy of activity begin! I called my parents to tell them they will now have to meet us at the hospital to get Eden. Brandon plucks Eden from her bed and throws her in the car while I struggle to get my shoes on and grab the last items for the hospital. As I'm climbing into the car (with my towel, just in case), Sharon is giving us instructions about what to do if the baby starts to come before we get to the hospital-- which basically consisted of, pull over and I will deliver the baby!

So- Brandon takes off for the hospital driving like a maniac while I am gripping the window bar trying to breath through the contractions. Next thing I know he is running red lights and I am half shouting at him to slow down because both our babies are in the car and we don't need to have a car wreck. To which he replies that Sharon told him to not go slow and continues running red lights and speeding toward the medical center! I still argue that I doubt she meant to run red lights, but it was pretty much a losing battle at the time and I didn't want a baby on the side of the road, either. I called the doctor while we were on the way, but he didn't call us back while we were in route.

We pulled up to the hospital and I gave Eden a kiss and plonked myself down on a bench outside. Sharon pulls up shortly after but there is no sign of my parents. We finally get in touch with them and realize they are lost in the medical center, so Eden gets pulled back out of the car. Poor thing is now wide awake and curiously looking around trying to figure out what all the commotion was. We all rush up to labor and delivery and check in at security. Meanwhile the doctor finally calls me on the phone. I'm not really sure what to tell him as I am already at the hospital, so I tell him I'm in labor with contractions 2 minutes apart and a lot of pressure. "Oh, and by the way-- we are already here?" haha-- what could he say?! I think he told me--"Uh- ok (pause) good. Well I'll be in to see you in a few minutes."

We race (I say race, but I was pretty much waddling by this point), back to my room. Sharon is telling me that we are cutting it close on midnight, and I manage to say that I don't care-- I will hold my legs together if I have to, but the baby is not coming out until 12:01! Haha! As if I could have controlled that! Meanwhile, though I didn't get it until after Grace arrived, while we are running through the halls, I receive a text from a dear friend saying "Thought about u & Eden all day today. I think u are going to be in the clear!!! : )" Haha-- she was pretty surprised to recieve my text a couple hours later that Grace had arrived! I actually had several sweet friends send me various messages throughout the day wishing Eden a happy birthday and telling baby Grace to hold on a couple more hours. Our friend Ginny actually sent me a text while I was waiting on Sharon at the house wishing Eden happy birthday and telling me "...good news! You made it past Christmas and Eden's bday!!" She was pretty surprised herself to hear that Grace was trying at that moment to make her grand entrance...

Once we got to our room I meet my sweet nurse Dawn who gives me a gown and begins getting things prepared. And once again, God provided two HUGE blessings here-- one is that Dawn, my nurse, was trained as a midwife, and she was EXCEPTIONAL throughout the delivery- she practically worked as hard as I did! And the other wonderful surprise is that Ashley, my favorite nurse from Eden's delivery, was able to come in to help! Sharon had called her on the way and though she was technically on another delivery, she made sure we had someone who would support our wishes and came by when she could! Again, God's hand, but it seemed so incredibly special to me that she was a part of both girl's births.

Sweet Eden and Daddy in the delivery room. She looks SO tired...

Dawn gets my IV hooked up and checks me to determine that we are almost ready to go. Meanwhile my parents call and notify us that they are downstairs. Brandon looks at Sharon and asks if he has time to bring her down. She tells him he better hurry, so he takes off running through the hospital and rather unceremoniously 'throws' Eden at them, grabs our bags (since my parents are taking our car with the carseat) and races back up. Shortly after, Dawn, Ashley, Sharon, Brandon and I all had a small mini-celebration in the delivery room as the clock finally reached 12:01am! We had made it to midnight! The girls officially had their own special days!

Labor was too fast to use my labor playlist, but Brandon is teasing me here about whether he should put on some Justin Timberlake! With Eden we were listening to all these sweet, faith-filled songs throughout the labor and suddenly Brandon leans over and asks "Is this Justin Timberlake?" Why, Yes it is. Lovestoned accidentally made the playlist, and I was secretly glad. I LOVE JT!

Things started to move pretty quickly after that, and at 1:07am, an hour and half after we walked into the hospital, Grace arrived. Beautiful, stunning, and awesomely perfect. They placed her on my chest for some skin to skin, and Brandon and I simply marveled at her.

Dawn actually performed all her testing while I was holding her and she even got to eat before they did her weigh-in. This was so special as I savored the extra snuggle time with my girl!

Official weigh in

Holding onto daddy

Proud daddy

First snuggles

Headed to the nursery

Family of 4!

Proud big sister

Heading home!

In truth, 2011, while full of many joys and special memories, was actually a very difficult year for us. For a little while we kind of started to feel like everything was falling apart. But as I told a group of my Bible study girlfriends, despite all of the pain, heartache and struggle of this last year-- I knew, and I KNOW that God is good. He is still good, and as I snuggle sweet Grace against me and look into her perfect blue eyes, I know this was God's plan for us. All of it. And He is good. This was the MOST incredible end to the year-- and we welcome the New Year with much joy and anticipation, looking forward to many special memories with our beautiful blessings.

Grace is a miracle. I am SO thankful she is a part of our family. And, while I miss the precious angel we lost in February, I also look at Grace and am totally overwhelmed with gratefulness that we have her. One thing is certain, God has big plans for this baby girl, and we can't WAIT to be a part of them!

Once again, many thanks to Sharon Tilotta from First Birth Ministries (http://firstbirthministries.com/) for all of her amazing support and the lovely pictures!

Look Who's Two!

2012-01-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

Eden had such a magical birthday this year! I treasured the day so much and really feel grateful that it seemed like such a perfect way to spend her final birthday as an only child. We really enjoyed an incredibly special family time.

In truth, I really wanted this post to be all about Eden and her big day, but the story would be incomplete if I didn't mention Grace's role in it, too. And while we are at it, God's perfect timing! So, while the day was almost entirely about Eden, Grace did play a part in it. Fortunately, her role came later in the day - in fact, mostly after Eden went to bed. Since the girl's shared a due date, the timing was unbelieveable. But most of that story is for another post. For now, I'd like to tell about Eden's incredible day.

As far as Eden's day, we got home from Corpus late Monday evening and opened the remaining Christmas gifts that we hadn't brought down with us. She had a great time exploring even more new toys! After we got her to bed, suddenly became frantic that I didn't have a cake ready for her big day-- I felt like such a bad mommy to her and didn't want her day overshadowed by the fact that I was very pregnant. And for some reason I had my heart set on getting her a golden cake with chocolate icing. Trouble is, those cakes are rarely available on last minute notice at the grocery store, so despite the fact that I was almost 38 weeks pregnant and exhausted from the weekend, I became adamant that I needed to run down to Kroger and buy a cake mix so that I could bake the cake that evening and ice it the next morning. Brandon caught wind of that and quickly but the axe on that plan-- he insisted that I take it easy because we needed the baby to stay put ONE MORE DAY, and promised me that he would take care of the cake in the morning. So, I reluctantly agreed. Honestly, it worked out so perfectly. Daddy didn't disappoint and managed to find her a beautiful and delicious Diner Cake from Dessert Gallery. Ok-- so it may not have had multicolored sprinkles, but it sure tasted better than anything I could have created, and, given Grace's hurry to join us, it just might have saved us a couple hours...

To start her big day, Mimi, Grandaddy and Uncle Richy came over to help her open gifts and also to celebrate our delayed Christmas. She was super excited about the tent they brought her (as were the cats...). She especially likes climbing out of the window!

While we were opening presents, she got a Facetime call and got to Facetime with Aunt Sheridan, Grandma and her cousins. Her Grandpa also Facetimed with her a little later. She was so excited- and everytime someone would wish her a happy birthday she would reply "hobby burday" right back! SO cute!

Grandma and Grandpa got her a new red wagon for her birthday! She was pretty excited to try it out!

After we opened up gifts, we all headed up the stree to get some Mexican food at Tony's and have birthday cake. Eden LOVES candles, so the cake was easily her favorite part of the birthday! As an added surprise, we had a #2 sparkler for her, too!

She loved the candles so much we ended up relighting them for her.

Yum!

After lunch we got the birthday girl home and in bed for her nap while daddy and I took it easy.

So, here is where Grace comes in. Just after Eden got up from her nap, I began to feel my first set of contractions. They were only 2 minutes apart, but they weren't too intense and since we had already experienced false labor, we determined to just keep an eye on them and go about the day. So we decided to take Eden for a spin in her new wagon! She had a ball and even brought some of her new choo-choos for a ride, too!

When we got home, Eden and I took a bath, and then Daddy got her dinner while I monitored contractions (they were now between 2 and 4 minutes apart, but still not too intense). After dinner we decided she should have one more piece of cake before bed. We tried to get her to blow the candles out, but she liked them too much and just wouldn't do it! She was even willing to put off digging into the cake to enjoy the candles longer!

At this point, daddy put Eden to bed and her extra special birthday pretty much came to a close-- except for one last GREAT adventure...

Christmas In Corpus!

2012-01-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

We had such an amazing Christmas! It was a year that Brandon's whole family was planning to be together in Corpus, but since I would be 37 weeks pregnant shortly before Christmas again this year, we really didn't expect to get to go. I was especially sad about this because the last time his entire family was together for Christmas (2 years ago), Eden was due and we were too scared to travel far from home. I was sad that Eden would miss out on sharing Christmas with all of her cousins, but I also wasn't really sure I wanted to risk having the baby come while we were traveling down there either! Since we weren't really sure what to expect, we kind of left everything up in the air until the last minute, not really sure if we could or should go.

We were so fortunate that the week before Christmas, God seemed to provide us an answer as well as a peace about going. A couple days before I became full term and a week before Christmas, I had 8 hours of contractions that eventually resulted in a midnight visit from the doula. Soon after we determined that it was false labor and it really didn't seem I was THAT close to having the baby after all. This was confirmed at my regular Dr's appointment on Tuesday. After talking and praying and consulting our Doula, we decided it might be ok to travel for Christmas afterall, as long as we were careful. So, at the last minute we decided to go- leaving mid-morning Christmas eve and returning the day after Christmas. It was a much quicker trip than we would have otherwise liked, but it was wonderful and we were so thankful we got to be there. Eden had an especially magical time!

Here are some of our favorite photos from the weekend:

Christmas Eve morning! Eden was starting to get excited about the presents, though I don't know if she fully understood why exactly they were so great, yet!

Here is a hilarious video of her trying to get us to let her open presents... at least, we think that is what she is doing!

Packing was more of an adventure than normal as we not only had to pack up all of the stuff we would need over the weekend, including Christmas presents, but we also had to have our labor bag, hospital bag, and infant carseat as well as some other random items we would need in the case that baby decided to join us over the weekend. While daddy packed up the car, Eden and I ran over to Mimi and Grandaddy's house to visit with my whole family and grandmother. Here is Eden trying on Uncle Richy's glasses!

Once the car was packed, we loaded up and headed down to Corpus. I think every major town we passed we breathed a sigh of relief that we hadn't had to stop and have the baby there! We were pretty excited to pull into Corpus and just be able to relax and visit.

Christmas Eve night, checking out the Christmas tree:

Christmas Morning! Opening presents from Santa with the cousins:

All ready for Christmas Service at church:

Eden discovered lip gloss during church. Here she is putting some on Lolly. Lolly was a good sport as much of it ended up on her nose and cheeks!

Opening gifts with the WHOLE crew (12 grandkids together)! Talk about wild! I couldn't even fit everyone in one picture.

And here is Eden opening up her car! She had a lot of help getting it open!

The car gave Daddy his first opportunity to put together an 'adult assembly required' toy. He did pretty well-- just a few minor frustrations and luckily there were plenty of experienced dads there to help him out some! Eden loved it so much she climbed in before Brandon got the wheels on and refused to get out so that he could get them on! She's pretty excited about the car!

Here is some video of her riding her hoppy cow which she got from Santa! She likes to bounce on it, but mostly I think she likes to fall off of it...

Merry Christmas!!

(p.s.- We made it home from Corpus with the baby safely inside...)

Final Family of Three Adventures

2011-12-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Before baby sister arrives, we have been having a lot of fun around town enjoying our last days as a family of three!

Last week we took a trip to the zoo with Mimi. Eden had the time of her life and even got to feed Jack the Giraff some lettuce! We couldn't believe how long his tongue is-- they told us about 10 inches, and since it's out in the sun so often-- it was black. And he was very efficient at using it- we didn't have time to get the camera out before he was reaching in and taking the lettuce from her. Eden especially loves Giraffs, or Yur-raffs, as she calls them, so she was pretty thrilled about the whole experience.

We also got to ride the carousel! Eden has gotten to go on them a couple times now and she thinks they are pretty awesome!

While we are at it, look at how big baby sister is! Woa! How does she fit in there?!

Since Christmas is on a weekend this year, Brandon actually got Friday and Monday off, so we decided to have a small adventure Friday as a family and headed to the Museum of Natural Science to see the butterfly exhibit. Eden loves butterflys and always points them out in her books and says 'bu-fly,' so we thought she would enjoy the experience. She didn't disappoint! She thought they were AWESOME, and mommy and daddy were pretty impressed, too. We even got to see a couple hatch right in front of us. I'd have to say Brandon and I were far more interested in this than Eden, but she found the ones flying around pretty cool.

Here she is sitting on a caterpillar with daddy at the entrance to the exhibit.

Checking out the many different types of beautiful butterflys!

One landed on her and stayed quite awhile. She loved it, but also seemed a little wary. She's not sure whether she should try to pet it or stay away! haha!

She also liked playing in the kid center after the exhibit, and was super fascinated by her shadow on the projection wall.

I also decided I wanted to get some Christmas photos of her, so we got everything all ready to the other day, and even got her all dolled up in her pretty dress, but these are about the sum of the shots I got. One cute one (of her not dressed up, naturally, since I was just testing lighting), and several with her rolling around on the floor throwing a fit, both dolled up and not. Eh. Maybe we can get a re-do after Christmas?!!

Ready to meet my baby sister!

Big Girl Bed!

2011-12-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well-- though it's taken us quite awhile, Eden's big girl room is finally ready and we are slowly making the transition from the crib to a big girl bed. And by BIG girl, I do mean big, because we decided to forgo using a toddler bed and just bought her a twin trundle bed. She LOVES it! From the moment we got it set up we could barely keep her off of it-- in fact, we didn't have any covers on it and there was a heavy mirror laying on top and I eventually had to move the mirror and cover the mattress because I couldn't keep her off of it!

Last night she spent her first whole night in it and did really well. The truth is, we haven't bought a bed rail for her yet because we figured she had the trundle we could pull out just in case, and she may not really need it. When I put her down last night I told her not to get out of bed until I came and got her in the morning. We were watching her on the video monitor and she was really good about staying there until she went to sleep. In the middle of the night I went to check on her and realized she wasn't in bed. When I went in there I realized she had accidentally rolled off and was still sound asleep on the trundle bed. So I picked her back up and placed her back in bed. I heard some rustling this morning and looked at the monitor to see she wasn't in bed again, but before I could make it back in there she had sat up off the trundle and was climbing back into her bed! I guess she figured she better get back in there since I had told her to stay there! It was SO sweet! I was really proud of her. And yes-- we will be getting her bed rails soon!

Here are the pics of her new room and bed! We have a couple more tweaks to make to the bookshelves, but we are pretty much there...

Here she is napping in it. Sweet baby girl!

I should also note that the nursery is also finished, but we are still waiting on the bedding, so I am going to wait to post photos until the whole picture is together! Poor Brandon. There sure is a lot of pink in this house!!

Christmas Happenings

2011-12-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well-- as usual, things are a little crazy around our house. I guess trying to finish settling into a new house, me working a 3 month, part-time contract through November, getting two little girl's rooms ready, preparing for Christmas and getting ready for a new baby has kind of kept our hands full! But slowly but surely we are getting there. I officially finished work on Nov. 30th, and have enjoyed these last few weeks with an only child. Both girl's rooms are *almost* ready, minus a couple finishing touches, and the house gets a little more 'settled' each week. I have officially finished all of my Christmas shopping aside from a couple items for Eden, and our hospital bag is packed and ready to go. I am finally starting to feel less frantic and more prepared to welcome our new baby girl!! And who knows, given our track record, it could be pretty soon here!

With all of that going on, we haven't really been able to celebrate Christmas to the extent we normally would, but we have managed to sneak in some super fun memories with Eden during this busy season. For her part, she LOVES Christmas and is absolutely precious taking in all the sights and sounds! She is crazy about Christmas lights and gets so excited in the car she stutters every time she shouts out "L-L-L-L lights, lights, lights!" We even decided to turn her around in the car a little early so that she can see them as we drive around. This was a much welcome change for her! She LOVES it! She is also obsessed with candles and there are plenty of those around for the season, as well. And she likes all the parties! Mommy was sick for our Sunday school party, but Eden and daddy had a nice time.

We did make it out to our friends Josh and Terence's party, though I still wasn't feeling 100%. We missed santa, but we did get some fun shots in the photo booth! (The first shot has to be my favorite!) ;- )

We picked out our Christmas tree a couple weeks ago, and Eden had a pretty good time, though the event was not completely tantrum-free either. Let's just say it took us awhile to find a good tree and she was pretty much done with the process after about 20 minutes! ha! Here are some pics of the evening:

She bored of the trees after awhile, so decided to check out the flowers:

We also got to get some photos with Santa- and not just ANY Santa, I should add. This was a REAL BEARDED SANTA! (RBS - http://www.aorbsinc.com/aorbshistory.html ). He was INCREDIBLE! While we were waiting on the patrons in front of us he kept smiling and waving at Eden, and you can see he was very strategic about how he held the little one's hands. I was SO impressed with him and so excited that there was no crying this year! I think we would have even gotten a smile, but in truth, she was more excited that Santa gave everyone duckies than Santa himself and kept saying 'duckie, duckie..." until he finally gave her one! Maybe next year we'll actually get a smile, but for now we were pretty pleased we didn't have a cry fest!

And finally, here is our 2011 Christmas card!! I simply can't believe how grown-up Eden looks!

Everyday Adventures

2011-11-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

We simply cannot believe how much of a little lady Eden is becoming- it's so hard to grasp that she is about to be 2! She is talking more and more and amazes us almost every day with what she has learned! The other day I was bathing her and she picked up the letter C and told me Cookie, Cookie, Cookie! Just to check, I spread out a bunch of letters in front of her and asked her to find C and she did! She also found Y when I asked! Why C and Y you ask? Simple. She likes to watch Elmo (she calls him Melmo) on our iphones every now and again and we tend to veiw the same videos with great frequency. She likes Cookie Monster's "C Is for Cookie" song, and Nora Jones', Y song. Since we have been working on letters, she can now also find A and B when asked! Wow!

We have also been working on colors, but hadn't really been having too much luck initially. I think it must be hard to understand that something can be a duckie and also be yellow. However, last night during the bath I asked her to find a yellow ball and she did! She also found the Blue, Green, Red, Purple and Orange ones! She doesn't get them right every time, but she is starting to get it for sure! Sometimes we are just so amazed at her.

Here are some favorite recent shots from 'around the house' and our everyday adventures!

Eden got a rocking horsie this summer and she LOVES to ride it! It's hard not to giggle with her when she gets going...

One of her favorite things in the new house (well, and mine, too!) is our extra long master bathtub! We often throw balls in it for a makeshift ballpit (mainly to entertain her while I am trying to get dressed), or she and the kitties jump in and out of it playing with a variety of things. I have gotten in trouble a couple times for letting her get in there with certain things that could damage the tub. : ( And sure enough, the other day she trailed me into the bathroom to get something and didn't follow me out. A few minutes later I followed the sound of intense giggles coming from the bathroom to find her pushing her baby stroller around and around the tub in circles. It would have been hilarious- but unfortunately she did put the first official scratch/chip in the bathtub. Opps!

Anyway, here she is having a 'picnic' in the tub! Haha!

We also took a weekend trip down to Corpus a couple weeks ago, and Brandon and I were spoiled with some mommy daddy time while Eden stayed with her Aunt Shee-Shee. We LOVED the time away (it was our first time to leave her overnight!) and she LOVED spending time with Shannon and her cousins. She also got to hold her first birdie! Here she is holding Percy Bird for the first time.

And what's a bird holding experience without the obligatory bird perched on the head moment?!!

Here are some shots from Halloween! Eden had the time of her life helping us pass out candy to all of the kiddos! As I mentioned, we had been warned that it was quite the event on our street. All told we guesstimate we had about 400 to 450 trick or treaters, and the neighbors assured us that this was a 'light' year! It really did look like a parade on our street for a couple of hours! We ended up having our friends Terence and Jessica join us and sitting on the front porch and enjoying pizza while we passed out candy. Eden liked the pizza, and was SO mesmerized by the kids, especially when she saw a couple 'melmos'!

She also trick-or-treated at a couple houses. She liked to say "tik teet" when we got there! Here is her 'candy please' face! haha! Who could resist that?!!

Here's the cheeks full of candy pic that follows. Yes-- we did feed our toddler pizza and candy for dinner. Parents of the year, right?!!

Finally, here is a precious shot of her at one of daddy's concerts. She ran right in and saw daddy and had to go over. She did get a little confused initially and grabbed onto Taylors legs, but she figured it out pretty quickly and moved on to daddy! She had a great time running around, dancing, and climbing behind daddy to mess with his guitar!

A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm

2011-11-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

We took Eden to Old MacDonald's Farm a couple weekends ago and she had such a ball! We got to pick out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, ride a big slide, and feed and pet all kinds of animals. Since she has just recently learned most of her animals and the noises they make, the petting zoo was especially fun for all of us! Eden now knows a lot of animals and LOVES to make the noises they make. Below are some of the animals she knows and her version of their noises!
Duckie = Qak qak
Puppy = Woof, woof (but in a very high-pitched, soft voice)
Kitty = Meeeow
Snake = SSSsssssssssss
Birdie = Teet, teet
Lion = Rooooaar
Cow = Moo, Moo
Horsie = Neigh, Neigh
Sheep = Ba, Ba
Owl = Hoo, hoo
Froggie = Ribbit, ribbet
Donkey = Hee-haa
Piggie = Oink, oink

She also knows Giraff (well, she calls is yiraaf), but we don't really know what noise they make...

Here are some shots of the day and a hilarious video of her feeding the donkey!

Picking out her pumpin, as she likes to say!

Feeding the animals! She LOVED the donkey!

The cow. The poor thing, she loved the drop the food on his head and he would just patiently eat it off the ground when it fell off...

The sheep...

Deer...

The smelly piggies.. she wasn't really a fan of these guys, but she did attempt one pet....

The sneaky goat! This guy was smart- he didn't really feel like waiting on the toddler for food but went straight for the bag....

And finally, watching the duckies- her favorite!

It was such a fun day for us!

Candy, Corn and Costumes...

2011-10-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Ok-- I know a lot of people don't just love Halloween. This has always been hard for me to understand-- I mean- to me, Candy, Costumes and Pumpkins. What's not to love?!! And let me just say, with a precious baby girl in our house, Halloween is even more fun these days!! Eden is going to be a little ladybug this year, and she LOVES her costume.

We have been really excited about all of the reports we have gotten on our new street- apparently Halloween is a BIG deal around here, too (Like-- get 5 huge bags of candy from Costco and you might still run out of candy big). So, we are gearing up and getting ready for the big night, and in the meantime, stopped by a couple pumpkin patches to shoot some pics our our little ladybug. She LOVES pumpkins, by the way. She thinks they make terrific balls when you throw them on the ground. She keeps getting baby pumpkins to take home and within a day or so the pumpkin will be missing its stem. Poor little guys...

Anyway-- here are Eden's official Halloween costume pics! She is SUCH a cute little ladybug!

Trick or Treat!!

26 Weeks and Counting!

2011-10-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

For fun I thought I'd post a couple milestone memories of the pregnancy journey with our rainbow baby girl!

Pregnancy Survey

How far along: 26.5 weeks

Total Weight Gain: MUST I admist this online?!! Seriously, I would cut this out, but for the record, I am right on track according to all the websites as well as where I was with Eden. Trying to hold steady to meet that 25lb mark I held with Eden
Stretchmarks: Not yet! But since my belly is so much bigger so much sooner this time, I did invest in some nicer stretch mark cream after my appointment last week. I had been using this greasy, smelly stuff and absolutely LOATHED putting it on, but this stuff kind of feels luxurious. It was totally worth a little splurge!
Sleep: Other than a couple restroom stops, so far, so good! Eden is actually the biggest cause of lost sleep at this time, but if I'm to be honest, I'll admit here that sometimes, thanks I think in large part to baby, I just flat out don't hear her and daddy tells me in the morning that she had a rough night! : ( Poor little honey.

Best Moment This Week: It's been so much fun feeling really strong kicks!
Movement: Man is baby girl a KICKER! She is practicing some serious acrobatics in there! Eden was quite tame in comparison. She has started to shake my whole belly and Brandon can definitely feel her now, too!
Gender: Baby girl! Whoo-hoo!
Labor Signs: Hopefully not! Supposedly I had some contractions during my 22 week ultrasound that I was unaware of, and I have felt somewhat suspicious that I have been having some Braxton Hicks here and there, but nothing too serious as of yet.

Belly Button: Oh man-- that popped out sometime around 13 weeks. serioulsy-- 13 weeks! What is that?!!

What I Miss: Running! I tried valiently one last time at 23 weeks and baby was just too big! I also miss eggs over easy, medium rare meats, and Jimmy Johns. *Sigh*

What I am Looking Forward to: Meeting new baby girl and getting to introduce Eden!
Milestones: Baby should be around a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel.

And here she is at 26 weeks! Don't ask me how we're going to make it to December!

Day at the Downtown Aquarium

2011-10-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

We had such fun last month for Brandon's birthday at the downtown Aquarium! Eden had a blast riding all the rides, seeing all the fish, petting the sting rays (it's true- they had a tank where you could splash and they would swim up for a pet!), and seeing the Snow Tigers! Here are some pics of our fun day out:

Eden splashing in the splash pad in her squeaky shoes:

Riding the choo-choo train!

Checking out the sharks in the aquarium around the train tunnel!

Her first ride in a Ferris Wheel!

Her first carosel- riding a seahorse! She wasn't really sure what to think about the next time, but must have liked it because when we went to the zoo the next week and she saw the carosel, she immediately started giggling and laughing!

Here are the beautiful tigers we saw after going through the aquarium exhibit. Eden loved them and plastered herself against the glass going "Kitty! Kitty!" So precious!

What a fun way to spend a birthday!

Move in Day! (With Before and After shots of the house...)

2011-09-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well- after months of hard work, frustration, waiting, being displaced and dealing with set backs and issues-- last weekend was a milestone for us-- move in day! We enjoyed our first dinner in the new house the night before the movers came... pizza picnic style on the floor!

It was great-- even if Brandon and I did have to chase Eden around throughout the entire meal to ensure she didn't get 'pizza fingers' on the clean walls. Even while we were doing it we had to recognize the futility of it-- of course we are going to have toddler sticky prints all over them in no time. I guess there is just something about wanting it to at least be perfect until we actually move in! : ) At least we upgraded the paint so it's wipe-able!

Though we have only been here 3 nights so far, and are definitely still dealing with the inconveniences and disorganization of moving (we have no bathroom mirrors yet, for one!), we are already loving being at the house. The street is so pretty and we have met a number of our neighbors and were excited to learn that there are lot's of little ones on the street. Fun for Eden and our new baby girl! There are also lot's of trees on the street, so I love that I can hear birds signing almost all day long! So lovely!

We are so excited to finally be able to show some before and after shots of the house, though our work is definitely far from done. We still have to install blinds, a fence and patio, and complete the studio! Oh right- plus decorate a 'big girl room' for Eden and a new nursery! Whew.

So- without further delay, here are our official Before and After shots of the house!

Front of house

Before

After:

Front Door

Before:

After:

Living Room

Before:

After:

Dining Room

Before:

Den

Before:

Dining Room/Den

After:

Breakfast Area

Before:

After (now the laundry room):

Kitchen

Before:

After:

Eden's Room

Before:

After:

Nursery

Before:

After:

Guest Bathroom

Before:

After:

Master Bedroom

Before:

After:

New Addition:

Master bath

Backyard

Before:

After:

Next on the agenda is adding a patio here.

Now- I can't say the move went by perfectly-- we had several items of furniture damaged fairly severly, Eden pulled a mirror over our second night in the house causing a frantic daddy to break one of the bed posts in his rush to get to her (both she and the mirror were fine, and the bed was easily fixed with some wood glue), and the AT&T guy fell through our ceiling today while trying to hook up the cable (fortunately he also wasn't hurt, but there is now a rather large and unsightly hole in our new living room ceiling). What else could be do besides just had to laugh? It kind of reminds us of Tom Hanks in the movie 'Money Pit'.

Other than our small misadventures, we are definitely enjoying having our own place again- at times it felt the day would never come!

Pip Squeak

2011-09-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Eden, a woman after my own heart, is already showing a love for shoes and accessories. : ) She has tiny little munchkin feet, so in the past I have really kind of struggled to find cute and functional shoes in her size (finding size 1s and 2s for a walker is tricky! Seems like shoe makers think 6-9 month olds should be wearing those sizes and since not many of them are walking, hardly ANY of those shoes have real rubber soles!) She is now finally moving into size 4, which means I can generally buy her 5s with a little room to grow, so a whole new world of shoe possibilities has opened up for us! She got a new pair of sandals from Mimi a couple weeks ago and absolutely adores them! She has been cracking us up with all her shoe antics! Here is a precious video of her trying out her new sandals the morning she got them:

We also found her an awesome pair of knee-high boots at a consignment store which she thinks are pretty great, too! The first time she tried them all she marched all over the room, stomping and kicking around!She kind of reminds me of Puss in Boots with these guys on! : )

She really just LOVEs shoes! She literally goes through her little shoe box pulling out pairs and bringing them to us to put on for her, saying "Shoooos, Shoooos!" She matches them up in pairs, carries them around the room, and even tries to put shoes on top of the shoes she is already wearing! On occassion we have been surprised to see a shoe sail into the bathtub while one of us is taking a shower, and when she tires of her own shoes, she simply moves on to ours! I even caught her trying on some of my work shoes today! Sometimes she picks out her own shoes for the day, and amazingly, aside from the occassion she wanted to wear her patent leather Easter shoes with jeans, she mostly picks out shoes that match! It's really quite impressive!

She doesn't just stop at shoes though, she also loves bags and jewlery! Here she is with Mimi's bag:

As you can probably tell from her shoe obsession, she is growing more and more into a little lady every day! She is really good at putting some of her chunky puzzles together now, and she knows how to make some animal sounds like quack, quack, moo, and woof woof. She is obsessed with her duckies, so it's pretty common to hear her running around going "duckie! duckieee!!" She also likes to say Choo, choo for her trains. I'm not really sure she has quite grasped that only trains go choo-choo, though. Seems like I hear her say that for almost anything on wheels these days!

Sadly, we did have our first little cosmetic injury a couple weeks ago. She was running through my moms kitchen and tripped (which she does A LOT), but happened to fall face first on the tile. We did see a little bleeding in her mouth, but she really wouldn't let us get a good look at exactly what happened. However, a couple weeks later we noticed she had gotten a tiny little chip on her front tooth. It really is very tiny and luckily is only a baby tooth, but it's still sad for me to know that it'll be that way for quite a number more years! : (

And finally, here is a cute video of her and a fun orange balloon she got at Luby's one day! She is having such fun!

What's it gonna BEE?!!!

2011-09-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

What's it gonna BEE?!!
Is baby E a he or a she?!! Come and see!!

Brandon and I had our big anatomy ultrasound on Thursday and were thrilled beyond belief to see a perfectly healthy little baby- with a strong heartbeat of 147bpm, healthy organs, two perfect and tiny little feet and a precious button nose! While we were at it, we were also finally able to find out whether Eden was going to have a baby sister or brother!! BUT-- instead of spilling the beans to our friends we decided to have a little fun to celebrate this new precious baby and our big news!! So we invited a small group of our close friends to a "What's it gonna BEE?!!" Party to find out the gender.

We had a blast, but let me just say that, as usual, things really didn't go quite like we planned. Brandon was actually at the new house meeting with the security system company trying to get our new system installed and they went really late, so he was not there to help me get everything ready for the party and the kick-off was a little chaotic! Good thing we have patient and helpful friends!

Origionally, we had planned to meet everyone at Jax grill thinking there would be plenty of space for a party of 20 or so. However, when I pulled up to Jax, I was met with mass chaos! Let's just make a long story short by saying there was no parking anywhere remotely close, most of the big tables were full and a very loud, apparently wildly popular zydeco band was preparing to blast music at ear-deafening levels. This didn't really sound like a good place for the kiddos. Only half the party was there- but we decided to call an audible and move the party across the street to Mission Burrito, so we sent out and emergency text and packed everything up! It actually turned out to be an even better venue as the kiddos had a place to play while we chatted and snacked on burritos and nachos.

After dinner/appretizers, we passed out cake pops that were either pink or blue cake on the inside to reveal the gender. Here are the cake pops!

I wish I could say that the looked this great when they arrived at the party, but unfortunately we had a pretty major crash and burn on the trip from Jax to Mission! Once we unloaded them we realized the bees had fallen over-- wings, stingers and antenna's had fallen off (this I expected and was prepared for), and in a few cases, several of the bees had met a messy and untimely death and had either exploded or had colored cake bulging through cracks (this I was not prepared for)! Carissa (who was the only one who had a surprise early peek ahead) and I did our best to perform surgery on those bees that could be salvaged and covered up any colored cake peeping through. In some ways I thought I could sympatize with some of those unhappy wedding bakers whose wedding cakes collapsed during transport! Oh well. Nevermind that they weren't 'perfect,' they still tasted great!

Here are our guests casting thier official boy or girl votes!

The blue team:

The pink team:

And the result??!!!!!

Team pink!!! Eden is going to have a baby sister!!!! We are SO thrilled and excited for Eden! And we feel especially blessed that our baby girl is healthy. God is SO good and continues to provide grace upon grace.

Here are some more glamour shots of our beautiful new baby girl! We are so in love already!

Profile:

Already sucking her thumb!!

Teeny, tiny little tootsies!

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. ~ John 1:16 from NIV

Halfway to our Rainbow!!

2011-09-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Well-
I've been pretty negligent on the udpates about our little rainbow. We are happy to say that our last few appointments have gone very well and we were delighted to get good test results back from our 13week scan and hear a strong heartbeat at our 16week appointment last month. We are now 21 weeks, more than halfway there!

Now, I know everyone says you show sooner with the second baby, but-WOW! We laughed because we swore you could 'tell' I was pregnant at 6 weeks! This baby is actually measuring 'big' (though they tell me the due date is still 1.11), but, wow. I mean, I have some serious belly for only being halfway there! Especially when you consider the baby is only the size of a bannana. Hmm...

Here are my belly shots from 6 and 15.5 weeks with our rainbow.

And here is my 16 week shot with Eden:

And finally, FINALLY, this Thursday, Sept 8, we will have our anatomy scan and hopefully find out whether our little rainbow is a 'healthy' baby boy or a baby girl! We cannot wait!

Many thanks, as always, for all the prayers and support. I'll have to admit that being pregnant after a loss (and especially a silent loss), is no picnic- but by the grace of God, I have actually been able to feel this little one kick pretty consistently since 14 weeks, which has been such a reassuring blessing. Now-a-days I actually wonder what we've gotten ourselves into because compared to Eden, this baby seems a little like a wild child already! What fun awaits us next year!!

Beach Trip 2011

2011-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

We took a trip with our good friends the Robertsons and Reeds at the end of July to go to beach down in Corpus. We all had a wonderful time!! Here are some pics of the trip!

Video of her playing in the waves! Some days she loved it, some days she didn't! We can never be sure what we are going to get with her!

It's not easy being this beautiful...

Cheetos...

Taking a boat ride with Grandma and Grandpa! She LOVES to say 'boat'!

Family pictures at the beach!

We had a great time- and while we were at the beach she turned into the quite the little talker! She now has a great many words she can say, including: mama, daddy, Mimi, Maggie, Buddy, kitty, puppy, ball, beach, pool, tractor, boat, jetski, cookie, hi, bye-bye, night-night, AND- I love you. Yep-- we are working on getting a good video of that to share- it is SO precious and she pretty much gets whatever she wants when she says it. Yea. We are pushovers. But who could resist this?!!

Fourth of July

2011-08-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes- I realize it's actually August, but we've been running around like crazy people trying to move out of our house (which I swear we narrowly survived), settle into temporary housing, and make decisions about the new house (which I am still hoping to survive). We did manage to sneak away for a weekend trip to the lake with the Elam's for Fourth of July, and had an absolute ball, so I couldn't resist posting some pictures of our little Firecracker!

Eden had so much fun swimming, eating and playing with her cousins! She also got to ride the boat and the jet ski and even had her first tump into the water while riding with her aunt She-She. I think it scared Aunt Shannon more than it scared Eden- she thought it was all a blast and even said "Jet-Ski" when she got off of it, which cracked us up! Who knows what words she's going to decide to say these days, but I have to say they are rarely the ones you expect!

Why, Hello, Marilynn!

First popsicle! I love the joker face!

And finally, Eden and the BIG fish! This catfish the boys caught is bigger than Eden! Woa!

BIG Girl, BIG News and Rainbows on the horizon...

2011-07-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

Well- Eden is excited to let you know that she is going to be BIG sister sometime very close to her second birthday! For all of you who have been praying for us-- we are so grateful and covet your prayers! We have so clearly seen the hand of God during this journey showing us that He is faithful and He can bring beauty from ashes. If I'm being perfectly honest, I will also tell you that he has been teaching us some difficult lessons through this journey, one of the most difficult ones for me being that He is ultimately the author and controller of life- and not, in fact- me, as I would often like to believe. One of the biggest ways he has done this for us is by the small miracle of this little one's due date. In truth, I was a little hesitant to begin trying again for a baby right away after our loss in February, but this was largely because I was terrified we would end up having it either on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, or, *gasp* Eden's birthday. (Yes, it’s true. I’m a control freak!) I told the Dr. at my post surgical appointment when he gently asked about our thoughts on timing that we had decided to just leave it in God's hands-- we wouldn't prevent, but we wouldn't 'try', either. Of course, in my head I also figured we were about a week ahead of things this time around so I kind of thought we'd be pretty safe regardless. But wouldn't you know, at our second ultrasound when the baby was finally large enough to estimate a due date, we saw 1.11.12 glaring at us on the screen. Brandon and I had to laugh. God has sovereignly decided that, despite OUR plans, this baby needed to share the EXACT due date that Eden was given! So, yea. Perhaps it's likely they'll share a birthday after all, and you know what?!! At this point, as long as this baby is healthy, we'll be glad for it to join us any day the Lord chooses!
So, a little background for understanding. You'll notice the ticker at the top of the blog is a rainbow. Did you know that the baby after a loss (stillborn or miscarriage) is often called a rainbow baby because they are considered the promise after the storm?!! We think that's pretty fitting for this baby, so we thought we'd keep the phrase. In fact, that's how we told Brandon's mother about our little miracle! We gave her a cheerfully potted plant for Mothers Day with a rainbow on it that said:

In order to see the rainbow, you have to endure some rain. (unknown)

We joyfully announce our anticipated rainbow, expected in December 2011!

We are thrilled beyond belief and, as the pot says, anxiously awaiting our expected rainbow in December (probably). : )

Here is baby's first set of glamour shots, taken somewhere around 13 weeks!

And, because I simply couldn't resist, here is Eden letting me know that she had reached the limit to her Big Sister photo shoot. In all fairness, it was BOILING hot out!

My Shadow

2011-06-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

My Shadow By Robert Louis Stevenson 1850–1894

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Well-- Eden discovered her shadow for the first time this week and gave us a cute little show! Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of it, but it's worth remembering (and sharing) all the same!

Adventures in Packing...

2011-06-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

I apoligize for my lack of blogging lately-- I swear we've been having some fun, but mostly what we have been doing is packing, packing and packing! It's hard to believe how much ~~junk~~, er, stuff we have accumulated in the 5 years we have been here. We actually got a load of boxes off someone who had just moved and thought there was no way we could use them all-- and you know what? We've run out!! And we still have stuff to pack! Yeesh!

Luckily for me, I've had plenty of help with the packing. Eden especially enjoys helping:

Yep. She likes to pack herself in the boxes/suitcases! And when boxes are too tall for her to climb into, she helps by putting her toys and loveys in the boxes when our backs are turned...

In fact, while we are on the subject of boxes, it hardly matters to Eden whether she actually fits in them or not. It seems like multiple times a week I have to help her out because she has gotten herself 'stuck' in one or another.

And if that isn't enough packing adventures for you, check out the video of our other moving helper:

"Buddy in the Box":

So, I guess we've been kinda busy lately, but we have tried to make some time for fun, too! Here are some favorite recent memories of our little princess!

The Chocolate Beard:

Chillin'!

Our New (very old) House

2011-06-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok. I know everyone's DYING to see the new place, so I am finally breaking down to post some before pictures. Maybe because there has been so much progress I am actually starting to feel like this is going to be ok. Although, if I'm to be perfectly honest, I have to admit I still get a little sick feeling when I walk in and see wall studs, no ceilings, and holes where the bathtubs/showers should be. Not to mention the lack of a kitchen. I usually find myself thinking, "Holy Cow! What have we DONE!" But I digress. There HAS been progress. We're starting to see an end in sight. And, if I can pull myself out of the weeds long enough, I realize the place is actually starting to look, well, GOOD. We're hoping for a mid-July completion date, and can't wait to throw the big open house party!

So, here they are! You won't believe it's the same house when you see the afters!

The lovely Living Room...

Dining...

Den...which turned out to be an enclosed covered porch. Yep. Nice little unexpected change order and related expenses on that one...

Breakfast room...

View of kitchen. I know you are digging the kelly green counter tops and matching cabinet knobs...

Ah-- the guest/master bath. Once again an unbelievable counter. This one happens to be 40inches tall AND is a smokin' Royal Blue color!! Nice...

Eden's new room! She's already found the hidden storage space below the window seats!

The former Master bedroom...

The backyard!

So, hope you enjoy! Can't wait to show the AFTERs!

On a wonderful side note, our beautiful house in the Heights sold after a whopping 11 days on the market. I have to be honest, selling was a little bittersweet for me. I am grateful to not have to pay double mortgages for too much longer, but knowing this house I love so much now belongs to someone else is also kind of sad for me. And when I saw the pictures that our friends Josh and Terence posted of it to list it online, all I could think was, "What a beautiful house. We should BUY this house!" Ha, and sniff, sniff. We'll miss it, but will SO celebrate a backyard for our girl.

Antics Around the House

2011-05-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we are certainly never without our share of laughter around here! Here are some of our favorite pics and videos from around the house and neighborhood...

At the park...

Monkeying around on dad's guitar case...with her trusty side-kick who is never far from the action!

Eden loving on her baby doll... so sweet.

Eden 'driving' her 4-wheeler. By driving, I mostly mean crashing, of course...

And finally, taking a walk... in style.

Train Gang!

2011-05-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we had a playdate with some friends at Hermann Park. We had a blast riding the train and playing at the playground, as well as enjoying a picnic lunch. Would you believe that despite mommy's poor choice of clothing (white?!! What was I thinking?) she actually stayed clean until lunch, when she decided to smear Peanut Butter and Jelly on her pants. *sigh* Well- we had a great time anyway!

Mother's Day Pool Party!

2011-05-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

I was so blessed to be able to spend Mother's day this year relaxing with family at the Hyatt in San Antonio! We met up with Brandon's parents as well Eden's Aunt Sheridan and her kiddos. We had such a wonderful weekend swimming, eating, sun bathing and hanging out. Eden wore herself out playing with her counsins and swimming. We could barely get her out of the pool, never mind that her lips matched her bathing suit and she was shivering!

We initially 'camped' out by an entrance to the lazy river that had a large shelf that Eden could play on. She wasn't really sure about it at first, but once she got the hang of it, she couldn't get enough! Every time we took her out to warm up she headed right back in, then climbed back out, then headed back in. We almost died laughing watching her do this. I have to say we were really proud of her for getting in the way we taught her to come down stairs-- but it sure was funny to see her do it! Aunt Sheridan likes to make the backing up "beep, beep, beep" sound as she does it!

Saturday evening we found a beach entry part of the pool which was by far Eden's favorite as she could walk right in and out and didn't require 'quite' as much supervision. She had the time of her time exploring the water!

I could not have had a better Mother's day- but Brandon and Eden surprised me with one more gift before we headed home on Sunday-- a pedicure at the luxurious spa! Talk about fancy! And man did this mama need one.

It sure is nice to be spoiled on Mother's Day, but all I could think of all day was what a priveledge it was to be a mommy at all! Speaking from experience now, I can wholeheartedly agree that "Children are a gift from the Lord..." Psalm 127:3

A True Princess

2011-05-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

I did take the opportunity to get some formal shots of Eden in her pretty Easter dress this year. Many thanks to her Mimi for the gorgeous outfit!

Oh Eden, your daddy and I think you are so wonderfully beautiful and feel so lucky to be your mom and dad! Happy Easter, little bunny, and may you always remember that because of His sacrifice, you a true princess- a child of the King!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! -1 John 3:1

Easter In Photos

2011-05-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

We were blessed to be able to celebrate Easter in Corpus Christi with the Elam clan and many of Eden's cousins. She had the time of her life-- and definately worked out some energy!

We got up Saturday and headed to the lake to play with everyone. Eden even got to take her first swim in the lake with her Aunt Shannon and daddy let her run around in the diaper. Hey- it's the lake, right?!! She had a ball playing with all the kids!

She also had her first Easter Egg hunts at the lake. Here she is with HER egg (with her name), filled with a shiny silver dollar! Each kid got a dollar for each year of age.

She is ready for the big hunt here! Her granddad made her a special bucket to hunt with since we didn't think she needed to get her pretty lace one dirty.

Despite the fact that we did actually practice hunting eggs at home (no, we are not competitive at all around here), she really didn't necessarily do so well at hunting the actual eggs. Eden found it far more fun to remove eggs from the basket than collect them and put them in there! I'm not sure she's grasped that they are filled with yummy treats yet.
Here she is sampling her first official Easter hunt treat!

YUM! Chocolate!

Easter morning we headed over to Aunt Shannon's church to see Mary Mae sing in the choir. Here is Eden after service! Always the stinker...

We went to Shannon's house for cousin Benjamin's 4th birthday party after church. The kids enjoyed a final egg hunt as part of the fun. Lucky Eden got to help grandma 'hide' eggs, but it looks to me like she was actually sampling the fare...

First Skittles! A win! (And they washed out of her clothes! Yippee!)

She was better at hunting by this time, but still not too good at getting them in her basket!

Lighting McQueen thinks he'd like to share that treasure with her! Doesn't she look proud of herself?!!

All the kiddos!

In Memory

2011-04-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.
~Isaiah 49:1

I have debated for a long time about whether or not to write this post. In truth, it's painful and perhaps a little strange to share something so deeply personal and sad on our blog which is usually filled with only the fun and quirky memories of our daily family life. On the other hand, however, it seems strange not to mention it as it was most certainly a very real and important part of our family history that we will treasure forever.

On January 31st, with suprise and much celebration, Brandon and I learned that Eden was going to be a big sister. At our appointment the next day we were delighted to see a strong heartbeat and learn that we were almost 6 weeks along! We immediately bought Eden a big sister shirt and mailed pictures of her in it to our family to announce our happy news. We were all delighted with the prospect of a September baby.

Sadly, just a few short weeks later at our 9 week ultrasound, we were devastated to learn that our sweet baby had quietly left us to go home to be with Jesus.

The weeks that have followed have been some of the most difficult that Brandon and I have ever faced together. For me, I was in no way prepared for how devastating a miscarriage could be. I knew people that had had them, but the truth is you just cannot fathom the pain until you have been there yourself. We loved this baby so very much- our hearts hurt to know that we won’t get to meet it on this side of eternity. And while we hold onto hope that we can most likely have another child, the truth is that it will never replace the one that we lost.

As I grieve the child I never got to know, I have cycled through overwhelming emotions at times; guilt, loneliness, deep sorrow, depression, anger and fear about the future. But I have also learned so much. Sometimes I think perhaps God sovereignly allowed this tragedy to bring about an awakening in my soul. In the first weeks as I tried to come to terms with what happened, there were moments when my grief was so much that my heart physically hurt. In those moments I had nowhere to turn but to the Lord. I clung to Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I didn’t understand this, but I knew that God was still good, and that He could- and would, bring beauty from these ashes.

Now, as the grief has become a little more bearable and we begin to look toward the future, we face new fears and sorrows. Of course we sometimes fear that we’ll lose another baby, or that it might take years to have another, or even that we will never be able to have more children. And there are days when I feel sad that if we DO get blessed with another baby, Satan will steal and kill the joy from the pregnancy and we will be gripped with fear throughout it. Perhaps one of the hardest things, in truth, is watching friend’s pregnancies progress around me that were due close to us. It’s not that I’m not thrilled for them; it’s just that it’s impossible not to remember that we would have shared our pregnancies or to compare their milestones with what ‘should have been’. Their growing bellies are simply a painful reminder of our loss. This month I cling closely to Psalm 31:14-15 (New Living Translation) “But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, "You are my God!" My future is in your hands.”

As a memorial for the baby, we pressed a flower from one of the sympathy bouquets we received and had it framed with the verse at the top of the post: Isaiah 49:1 "The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me." Though we never got to name this child, I take comfort in knowing that God has done so for us. And it’s so sweet to know that this child was blessed to go straight to paradise and will never feel the pain, suffering, loneliness, rejection or sorrow of this world.

We miss this baby terribly and would have chosen to have it here on earth with us, but since it was not in God's sovreign will, we anxiously await the day when we will get to hold it in heaven.

Psalm 139: 13-14
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Spring Flings!

2011-04-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last week we joined a group of friends from church to enjoy a day at the zoo. The weather was beautiful and, aside from the fact that what seemed like every school group in the greater Houston area was there on a field trip, we had a wonderful time! Eden is still a little bit too young to get excited about animals, but she did enjoy spending time with friends and of course, watching all the school kids!

Ok-- so obviously I didn't take the photo below, and while I do appreciate the help from the random stranger who took it, I had to laugh when I looked at it. What's the deal with all the extra feet of sky despite the fact that the kiddos heads are being cut off?! And-- if I'm being really honest here-- the stroller on the right hand side is actually a double-- the other child was only half in the picture. Yeesh. I decided to go ahead and crop him out. *sigh* Since this is the only shot I have of the group though, it's going to have to do.

This weekend we had more activities with Brandon's company picnic and a birthday party. Eden had a wonderful time!

I can't end the post without relating some of Eden's most recent antics. First off, I should give her some credit and mention that she has been really great with not throwing the food she doesn't want on the floor during mealtimes. We really had to work hard on that. A couple months ago we had quite a few incidents like this:

Now she likes to either give the food she doesn't want back to us or push it into the cup holder part of her tray. She has been so good that she graduated to actually getting to keep her cup on her tray and drink it by herself (note that I am talking about her non-sippy cup cup). This week I left her with a cup of milk and some blueberries and ran upstairs to put something on the washing machine. When I came back down I noticed all her blueberries were floating in her milk. I asked her if she put her blueberries in the milk- and she leaned over and peeped into her milk cup like "What? How did THOSE get in there?!!" Seriously. I know I shouldn't have laughed, but how can I help myself?

This week, since the sun has been out in full force, we have been putting her sunglasses on her some. Most of the time she just pulls them off, but while we were getting ready today, she found a pair and decided she wanted them on. Once she checked herself out in the mirror she thought she was pretty darn cool looking, and gave us quite the show!

Belle in the Bonnets

2011-04-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yep- Spring has finally fully sprung here in Texas...and the hills are once again covered in masses of beautiful bluebonnets. So, taking full advantage of the incredible weather, we of course had to nab the opportunity to take some photos of our beautiful belle among the 'bonnets. She looked so pretty, but she's not really a fan of flowers, or at least touching flowers, (which seems strange to me since she is perfectly content putting rocks or playground mulch in her mouth), so we didn't really get the best pictures of her again this year. They did turn out better than last year, so hopefully by next year we'll have this down!

For posterity sake, here is a shot from last year! haha!

Besides enjoying the bluebonnets, we also got to take a fun trip up to Austin in mid-March to visit our friends Dawna and Jeremy and see The Literary Greats play South-by-Southwest. (The Greats are doing amazing this year, by the way, they are charting close to 100 on the college music radio charts and just got licensed for an MTV movie! We are so excited!) Instead of attending the concert this year Eden stayed home with a sitter (along with Reagan and Cole), while Dawna and Jeremy and I went downtown to catch the show! We had a great time- the guys did a great job and put on quite the concert! We had a wonderful time hanging out with Jeremy and Dawna and watching some great bands.

As far as what Eden herself is up to, she has become more and more of a flirt by the day! When we go to resturaunts we have to buckle her into her highchair because instead of focusing on her food, she will scan the nearby customers to find someone to flirt with, sometimes turning all the way around backward. Well-- now that she can walk, she doesn't have to just passively wait to catch someone's eye, but can now simply insert herself in the middle of things. On Sunday we were eating at a Mexican resturaunt and a group of young girls walked in. Eden pushed her way right into the middle of the group and looked right up at them like she was just one of the girls! yea-- I know we should have probably stopped her from butting in, but it was just so darn funny!

Eden has also started saying Mama (with purpose) lately! She's known how to say it for ages, but we could never really tell if she knew what it meant. She'll hardly ever repeat it back to me or say it when I ask her. But over the last couple weeks we notice that she WILL say it when I've left the room and she is looking for me. It's such music to my ears to hear her sweet voice say it.

Since the weather has been simply exquisite lately, we've been trying to enjoy some time outdoors. We had been visiting a nearby park that we can walk to but to be perfectly honest, since our house is in the transitional area of the Heights, the park was just a little bit, well, ghetto. As in, I have to scour the ground for broken glass and other gross things I really don't want my toddler picking up and playing with before I let her out of the stroller. Recently a friend introduced us to a new park here in the Heights which is really great and both Eden and us enjoy. And we've met lot's of friends there! The thing is, everytime we go it seems like all Eden wants to play with is someone else's ball or tricycle. So, yesterday I thought ahead and brought both her ball and her tricycle. With the ball, she was the most popular girl in the park (which of course, she loved)-- but I think Eden enjoyed the 'friends' more than the actual ball. And once her new friends wandered off, she wasn't interested in the ball at all anymore but only someone else's doll stroller. *sigh* I guess what I have finally learned is that it doesn't really matter what you bring with you to the park, kids are only really intersted in playing with everyone else's toys!

Eden is certainly a handful, but she is such a blast to be with and Brandon and I are so enjoying each new stage of her childhood! We praise God for such an unbelievable blessing!

Shelf-Sitter

2011-03-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Last week Eden and I went to the Rodeooooo with some friends. Eden got to wear her pink cowgirl boots which FINALLY fit!! She was so precious! Here she is getting ready to go! Giddyup!

We did have a wonderful time-- the fair around the rodeo felt a little more like a circus with all the people! It look us 30 minutes to park and take the tram to the actual entrance and by the time I found the rendevous point we were, of course, fashionably late. Ok-- more like 45 min late. *sigh* We did find everyone though, and had a great time walking around the Kids area. Eden got to go in the petting zoo and pet the sheep, goats and pigs. There were even some llittle baby goats which I fell in love with and wanted to bring home with me..I'm sure they would be useful to us at mealtimes. : ) For Eden, she was about as impressed with all the animals as her kitties, maybe less so since these animals didn't like to play with feather wands. She did enjoy walking around and pulling on all the fencing while mommy pet the animals, however.

We also got to visit a birthing area at the rodeo, and we got to see lot's of mommy cows, sheep and pigs in labor or about to be. There was even a newborn calf, named Norman, who had just been born that morning! He was so sweet-- totally tuckered out just like human babies when they are first born. His mama was really proud of him. : ) Eden had a nice time seeing all the sights, people and animals.

As for Eden, she has really been cracking us up lately. She has learned to clap, and just loves to get us to clap for her (but don't all toddlers?!!) Brandon and I have also noticed that she has just recently started, ah, 'directing' us more. In fact, yesterday we were playing a game where I pulled her around on a blanket, but I was getting tired so I stopped to take a break. She kept pushing the blanket at me and then plopping down on it. Brandon and I thought maybe we should teach her the sign for please so we both start rubbing our chest and saying 'please'. I guess she didn't really understand, but she REALLY wanted to go on that blanket ride, so she came over to Brandon and rubbed his chest and then came and rubbed mine! How could we refuse that?!!

She has also finally got the hang of sitting down on things. She has found all sorts of good 'seats'. And it's a hoot to watch her try them out because she is kind of like an old lady... she will turn around and carefully position herself in front of whatever it is she is planning on sitting on, and then- just rapidly fall down onto it. Occassionally she misses the 'seat'. Here are some of her newfound 'seats'.

The nursing stool in her room:

Trying out a 'kiddy' chair while we were furniture shopping:

Her table:

The bottom step:

Her teddy bear:

Her friend Reagan's Hippo chair:

Reagan's new carseat. I love how she lays back like it's a lazy boy:

And my favorite- perching on the bookshelf-- she even found a place for her teapot! I swear I did not put it there!

And finally, some around the house shots of our sweet girl...

Winter Weekend Trips

2011-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

February 26th we took a little family trip down to Kemah. It was nice to get away, though the weather was not as sunny and bright as we would have hoped. Unfortunately, Eden was sick with Roseola, but she still enjoyed riding the choo-choo train and playing on the outdoor playground. We also had lunch at the Aquarium so that she could see the fish. I'm not sure she knew what to make of them, but she did like watching them swim by. She kept trying to 'pet' them!

Here she is on her first train ride! There was so much to see!

The following weekend we decided we needed some family time, so we headed down to Corpus for a short trip. Eden had the time of her life playing with all her cousins. All the girls chased her around, pushed her on the ride on car and in the toy shopping cart and carried her around the house. To them, I am sure Eden was just like a living doll, and for her part, she relished the attention and playmates!

Here she is with daddy getting ready for her cousin Allen's baseball game!

All the cousins together!

All that playing sure makes a girl tired...

New House!

2011-03-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

On Friday, March 4th we closed on our new house! It's really been an exciting ride. We liked the house when we first saw it, but weren't sure it was the one initially. However, we did see some potential and wanted to walk through it with a contractor to price out some changes. Last time we tried to do this, the house we had been looking at sold out the weekend before we were set to meet the contractor, and since this one was priced very fairly, we decided to go ahead and put it under option to 'hold' it until we could get the contractor there. From that point on God just opened door after door until it seemed really clear that this was in fact, the right house. First of all, the owner was a piano teacher. She just fell in love with Brandon and decided that she wanted a musician in her house. When we placed the offer, we underbid expecting her to counter, and because it was 'the musician' making the offer, she decided to accept it with no counter because 'she wanted a musician in the house.' What?! The contractors hit the marks we needed on pricing, the inspection was one of the cleanest the inspector had ever seen for a house this age, and the bank ok'd the loan, so at some point it just made sense to go through with it. Now we are really excited about it and can't wait for all of the updates to get underway.

Closing was definitely fun. We were very thankful that our awesome realtor Terence was there to help us sign paper work as it was a lot more difficult this time with an active toddler. I tried my best to keep her from destroying the place or sticking her fingers in the electrical sockets for as long as I could, but gratefully passed those duties on to Terence when it began to distract from my ability to sign my name! Incidentally, we did learn that a spinning desk chair is a highly amusing toy that every home needs and can even double as a stroller if it has wheels (but watch out for the walls!) We also reaffirmed that Terence is an amazingly patient man (as if I hadn't learned that from all of the many, many houses we looked at, discussed, found problems with and fussed over before I found this one). Poor Terence! At one point he decided to give her a snack to distract her. She kindly offered to share and went as far as placing the snack in his mouth before changing her mind and taking it back to eat it herself! Well- what can I say? We are still working on that whole 'sharing' thing.

Here we are celebrating the official close as a family!

Here's our new home! It's an older house so will be undergoing some remodeling as well as construction. I will eventually post some pics, but thought I might wait until we have official before and after pictures because it's going to look very different! Several walls are coming down, the kitchen is being updated, and approximately 500 sq feet for a master bath and closet as well as utility room are being added. Currently we are hoping for a June move-in.

Eden's 1 Year Photos

2011-03-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

We took Eden's 1 year photos a couple weekends ago. Many thanks to Bob Boyd-- they are simply gorgeous! Here are a couple of our favorites. She is turning into a little lady right before our eyes.

Flashback from the past... watching Eden grow-- before we met!

2011-02-15T21:06:00.000-08:00

I realize this is late in coming, but I've always meant to post the entire collection of Eden's belly shots. It is CRAZY to think that I was actually that big-- and that she actually FIT! Woa!

Anyways-- here's the collection and the 'finished' product! Much better!

Sweet Valentines Day

2011-02-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

We had such a sweet Valentines Day. Let me say this, Valentines Day with children definately looks different than when it was just Brandon and I! It used to be this really romantic holiday where we got all dressed up and went to a really nice dinner in really nice clothes. It's still romantic in it's own way, since Brandon and I do celebrate our love for each other and the many blessings it has brought us (not the least of which is our sweet baby girl), but it's a little less mushy and a little more, well, sweet. For us, Valentines Day was just a really precious day filled with fun surprises while we enjoyed being a family. Eden and I got up and made heart-shaped, strawberry muffins and heart-shaped waffles with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. The plan was to sit down and enjoy breakfast as a family, but truth be told, Eden got a little cranky and had to have a nap while Brandon and I enjoyed breakfast. Still, it was a wonderful way to start the day!

When Eden came down in the morning, she had a sweet stuffed puppy and a BIG helium filled balloon waiting for her! She liked the puppy, but the balloon was definately her favorite. She and Red had TONS of fun with the balloon!

I got also got some sweet gifts, including a lovely card, beautiful roses and an Orange Fanta from my awesome hubby! What sweet surprises.

Since Mimi and Grandaddy had just come in from Qatar, we all decided to go have a Valentines dinner at Collina's. The most noticable difference from Valentines dinners in the past was that we went at 6:00pm instead of 8:00pm. AND-- I think I counted 18 kiddos at the place (including Eden) while we were eating! Definately a change from years past, but a lovely one, all the same!

What a wonderful day it was! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful little Valentine to share it with!

Joy Comes in the Morning

2011-02-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

"...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." ~Psalm 30:5

Earlier this month I took Eden in for her 1 year well child visit. I knew it was going to be a big one, as she was due to get the dreaded MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. This particular vaccination has really gotten some bad press as it has been linked to all kinds of icky things, including Autism, though this particular theory has been proved to be false. In fact, just recently, "Dr. Andrew Wakefield's controversial, already largely discredited study that kicked off the whole debate back in 1998 was branded an "elaborate fraud" by the British Medical Journal (BMJ)." (http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/06/jenny_mccarthy_autism_debate)

So yea, it turns out Jenny McCarthy is actually not a medical expert. Hmm. Anyhow. Personally, I am a huge believer in vaccines and I have always been too afraid to NOT get them and possibly face the terrible diseases they prevent. So, of course, we went ahead with the vaccine. Dr. Thaller had warned me that some kids do get a rash from the disease, but that this particular one doesn't show up for 2 weeks. So- Eden got the shots, cried for a few seconds, and I really didn't give it a second thought. Well- for two weeks, at least...

Two weekends after she got the vaccine, Eden started acting fussy. Actually, crazy fussy. And she kept putting a finger in her left ear, so of course, I whisked her into the doctor first thing Monday morning expecting to be told she bad ear infection. Instead I was told her ears were fine and she must just be 'fussy.' Yes-- that was the actual diagnosis given. So I left the office feeling a little crazy and a lot like a paranoid mom.

Monday night, all hell broke loose and poor miss Eden hardly slept. We also noticed she was burning up. At about 3am when I was changing her diaper and taking her temp (102 after Tylenol!) I saw the first sign of an angry red rash on her little chest and belly. At this point we realize it's about the right timeframe for a reaction to the vaccine.

On Tuesday Brandon had to go out of town for work, so poor little miss Eden and I are on our own. Tuesday night goes down in the books at the Elam house for one of the worst nights on record!

Poor Eden went to bed with no problem, but woke up at 10:30pm and just couldn't get comfortable enough to go to sleep. I stayed up with her until about 1am and then placed her in her crib with some toys to play quietly. I got about an hour of sleep, but I really don't think Eden was able to sleep at all. At 2 I got back up with her because she was just miserable and couldn't settle down. Around 2:30 I was at a loss for how to help her, so I decided to put her in the bath to help her relax. She was happy enough while she was in it, but after a half hour the water was getting cold and it was time to get out. Here are the bath time shots I took:

At this point she had a spell where she went absolutely nuts for about 20 minutes. I'm guessing she felt bad and was overtired, but it was so sad since there wasn't anything I could do for her. Now I'm starting to panic and feel completely freaked out and alone! Why is Brandon always gone when these things happen?!! Not sure what else to do (and, if I'm being honest, possibly so that I wouldn't feel so alone), I ended up calling the on-call nurse at 3:00am. She was just as confused as I was, but more convinced that it was chicken pox than MMR. She did mention that Benedryl *might* help. So, I hung up the phone thinking- man, if only Brandon were here I could run out and get some and try it. And then it occurred to me that Eden was wide awake and I was scared and lonely, so heck-- why not go get it now?!! Then it occured to me that Eden sometimes relaxes and falls asleep in the car! Hey-- it was worth a try. So, at 4:00am I loaded her up and headed out to a 24hr CVS. The lady at the drive-in was sweet enough to give me the Benedryl through the window (even though she wasn't supposed to- I attribute this to my half-crazed expression) and I took off up 610 for a little drive, praying to God that He would show mercy and allow Eden some rest. At about 4:15 I realized that she was, in fact, asleep. Praising God I took her swiftly home and stealthily transferred her from the carseat to her crib. Whew! Relief at last!

To be perfectly honest, I had some moments during the night when I thought I would lose it. But- throughout the LONG night, I just kept remembering the verse, "...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." ~Psalm 30:5 I kept thinking if I could just make it until 6am, the sun would come up and we would be ok. And this, in fact, was true! How much better things seemed once the sun was up to greet us! And, as bad as I felt for Eden and as tired and scared as I was, I kept thinking about what privilege it is get to be a mommy to this precious child and that, in fact, I would not have traded a second of the pain for the joy that I get in getting to hold and raise and love her.

I did take her back to Dr. Thaller Wed morning to be sure she wasn't suffering from Chickenpox. He was very impressed with her rash, (I believe he called it 'wonderful!') and confirmed that it was an MMR reaction. All I could think was- geez! If this was like a MILD case of the measles, I'd hate to experiance the real thing! And Chickenpox?! Oh year we're getting that vaccine!!

Here's my sweet baby girl with her impressive rash. Poor baby!

Eden is Walking!

2011-02-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

On January 17th, Eden decided she was finally ready to walk- and she did it in true Eden style-- all or nothing. Basically, she went from just taking a couple small steps from a piece of furniture and falling, to pushing herself up from the ground and walking. Even more amazing was that Brandon happened to be filming, and I happened to be watching the first time she did it! We were SHOCKED!

She has been practicing very hard every day since and has gotten so good at it. I know it won't be long before we are running to keep up with her! It is so amazing to see her grow up right before our eyes!!

n Jan 15th Eden went to her first official Aggie ball game- basketball, at least! She had a GREAT time! She especially loved all the loud music and even showed off some of her impressive dance moves! Haha!

Eden's Birthday Party!

2011-01-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

On January 1, 2011 (1.1.11) we were blessed to have a number of friends and family join us for Eden's first birthday party. It was such a wonderful day, both sets of Eden's grandparents were there, and even her great Nana and Grandpa Elam, whom Eden is named after. To read more about her name, click here!

All told there were about 30 adults and 14 kids that joined us for the celebration, so things got a little wild there for awhile! Eden had the time of her life, she LOVED playing with all the kids and wanted nothing more than to be in the middle of the action the entire time!! We felt so thankful that so many people could join us and are especially grateful that Eden has so many people that love her so much.

Here are some pictures of the day:

The picture from her invitation:

The theme of the party was pink, so I had a lot of fun bringing in pink everywhere I could!

Pink lemonade:

Pink Champagne:

Her pink Christmas tree!

We even found some pink beer to celebrate with, though most people really weren't that impressed with it.

Here is a snapshot of the centerpiece: a year in photos! We can't believe how much she has grown!

Her beautiful (and delicious) birthday cake that her Mimi made her!

Getting ready for cake!

She's excited!

Blowing out the candle:

Yummy!

Enjoying the party!

She LOVED her cousin Allen's braces! She kept making faces at him trying to get him to show them to her! I think she thought it was like jewlery for teeth!

Eden's First Birthday

2011-01-21T18:46:00.000-08:00

Eden turned one on Monday, December 27th. Brandon and I could hardly believe that a whole year has gone by since we met her for the first time, or how quickly that year went by! Everyone told us that the time would go fast, but I think we just really couldn't understand that until we had Eden. Its AMAZING to think about how much she has grown in one year. She came into the world weighing 6lbs 4oz, and at her one year check-up, she weighed in at 19lbs 6oz. She has learned to smile, giggle, roll-over, sit-up, crawl, pull-up and now walk. She can sign 'more' when she wants more food and can shake her head 'no' when we tell her not to do something. She is such a happy girl and is simply a delight to be around. God has answered many prayers for us this past year-- but I am so touched by this one. Eden's name means 'delightful', and it was my prayer that she would indeed be a delight to others and that she would find her own delight in the Lord. Despite a rough start due to colic, I can honestly say that I consider Eden an absolute delight and joy to be around! She makes us laugh each and every day. How blessed Brandon and I are to be priviledged with the awesome responsibilty of being her parents.

Here are some flashback shots from last year! It's amazing for me to think back on it all. Click here if you would like to read about Eden's entrance into the world.

For Eden's birthday, we took the opportunity to take some family pictures with the birthday girl-- decked out in her precious cupcake outfit from her grandmother! It was a tad chilly, so we'll probably have to do a rerun at a later date, but I think they captured the mood of the day well enough!

After the pictures, we decided to take Eden to her favorite resturaunt, The Black Eyed Pea for a birthday lunch. The hostess just fell in love with Eden and went above and beyond to make her lunch extra special. She made a special birthday hat for her and brought out some bannana pudding while all the waitstaff sang to her. I'm not sure she really knew what all the fuss was about, but she enjoyed the attention all the same! The Bannana pudding, however, not so much. I think she thought we were trying to trick her by putting something healthy in her dessert!

After Eden's nap, we treated her to an afternoon at the Children's Museum. She had a great time, as always.

Here we are going down the slide! The shot isn't great, but you can see how much she enjoyed it!

We met Mimi and Granddaddy at California Pizza Kitchen for her birthday dinner, then headed home for presents and cake. We also cracked open some nonalcoholic champagne again for her. Here she is having her "taste".

She likes her trike-- almost as much as the cat toy she refused to surrender!

She was a little slow to get warmed up to the idea of getting messy with the cupcake, but once she had a small taste of the icing, she thought it was pretty good stuff!

Happy Birthday my Angel! We are SO thankful God has given you to us to hold!

Christmas in Pictures (and lot's of them!)

2011-01-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

Fun memories from Eden's first Christmas!

Elam Christmas Card 2010

We got to go to Dickens on the Strand in Galveston. We had a great time, but it sure was COLD!

We picked out Eden's first Christmas tree!

We decorated the tree (and fished some ornament parts out of Eden's mouth):

We got pictures with Santa. As you can see, Eden loved it:

Upholding an Elam family tradition, we took a trip to Urgent Care on Christmas Eve. Poor Eden had a virus with a high fever:

The doctor was so nice, but he decided to give her some steriod to help with some of her virus symptoms. Eden spent the next 12 hours like a baby on fire- except for a short cat nap on the way home from the ER, she wouldn't sleep- or in fact eat, play with us or settle down!! When we were still fighting with her at 9pm (her bedtime is 7:30) Brandon's mom asked us if she could be wired from the steroids. I called the nurse from the ER, and she nonchalantly confirmed that this could happen. What?!! Thanks for the heads up!! We finally decided to just let her run out of steam on her own, and as long as we didn't mess with her she played around as happy as a jaybird. Even threatening Santa's not coming did nothing to persuade her to sleep! Finally, at midnight, she settled down and slept peacefully. Mom and dad were exhausted, but thankful! Here she is on what we affectionately call her "Roid Rage'. Poor baby!

Christmas day we spent at the Flesher house and were blessed to have both of MY grandmothers with us! Eden wasn't entirely herself yet, but she definately felt better and had a lot of fun opening presents!

We opened family Christmas gifts before Eden went to sleep. We cracked open some nonalcoholic champagne for the occasion, and Brandon couldn't resist giving Eden a taste. Like her momma, she was a fan!

Red LOVES Christmas!

Just like everyone warned us, Eden proved most interested in the paper and boxes (almost):

But she also loved all the other new toys:

"This one is so delightful I think I'll lick it..."

This one licks her instead!

Did I mention how much Red Loves Christmas?!!

Post Christmas diaster zone!

Minus the ER visit, it was a perfect Christmas! Can't wait till next year!

Breckenridge

2011-01-20T11:52:00.000-08:00

On December 17th we headed up to Breckeridge, Colorado for a ski trip with the Flesher family. We had a wonderful time! To help give Eden some time to adjust to the altitude before heading all the way up the mountain, we decided to stay in Denver overnight. We had planned to fly in early, have a nice dinner and relax in our cute hotel to help get into vacation mode. Unfortunately, more carseat trouble foiled our plan! Once again our carseat did not make it to our destination with us, so Continental once again offered to give us a loaner. Since we had had such a bad experiance last time, I wasn't really happy about this plan, and sure enough, after a half hour of trying to get everything sorted out they handed us our loaner. This time the 'only' loander they could provide was... FOURTEEN years old!! WHAT?!!! We were pretty upset, but since the only other option was waiting a couple hours for the next plane to bring ours (putting us well past Eden's bedtime), we decided we would have to take it. It was so old it didn't install the same way ours did, so we took forever in the freezing cold rental car trying to get it installed. We FINALLY got to our hotel at 8pm, tired, hungry and cranky. So much for a relaxing night! We made up for it the next morning though with a lovely breakfast and some shopping before heading up to the mountains.

We had a ton of fun in Breckenridge and enjoyed playing in the snow with Eden, finding fun places to have breakfast and lunch, and doing a little shopping around town. Here are some shots of Eden and us playing in the snow. She HATED her snowsuit, but LOVED riding in the sled. She also wasn't so sure about sitting in the cold, wet stuff and much preferred sitting in our laps!!

Brandon and I were also fortunate to get to enjoy some skiing while we were there as my parents kindly offered to watch Eden in the afternoons so we could get out together. The snow was AMAZING- several feet of powder almost every day. Here is a picture of us on the summit. So gorgeous!

Since Eden missed out on all the skiing, we decided it would be nice to do something fun that she could participate in with us, so we all decided to take a sleigh ride. Here we are getting ready for the action. Eden was so amused by the mules-- she wasn't sure what to make of them.

We all bundled up in the sleigh and took a short trip through the feilds and then stopped off in a cheery tent to have some hot chocolate and sing some songs. Eden loves music, so she enjoyed the pit stop:

In addition to all of the amazing things we got to do with Eden, one of the biggest events of the trip was that Eden took her first unassisted steps! It was really exciting to see her do it!

One of the only drawbacks we faced was that Eden did struggle some with the altitude and really had some trouble sleeping. Right about midnight each night she was up and wanting some extra attention. Poor thing ended up in our bed every night we were there! The video is not posting, so I will try to get it up later.

Finally, since the trip started with such a bang, it was only fitting that it should end with a small adventure, too! First off, we got a little mixed up on the flight time, so we left the cabin and headed down to the airport with what we thought was plenty of time. We pulled into a gas station before we dropped the rental off and were taking our time feeding Eden and gathering stuff when we realized Eden was really warm. Sure enough, we discovered she had a 103.6 degree temperature! In the meantime, we realized that our flight was actually leaving an hour before we thought it was!! After a mad dash through the airport, we missed the flight and had to wait a couple hour more to go standby on the next one. We gave the baby tylenol for her fever and had something to eat. Fortunately, we made the flight and since we carried on the carseat this time, we were good to go (if not a little exhausted) when we finally got home!

Nashville

2011-01-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

The month of December was a crazy, wild whirlwind with Eden's first airplane rides, first snow, first Christmas, and a very important first birthday! I apologize for being the worst blogger in the world (*sigh*) but it's been tough finding time during all of that!

The first really exciting event in December, (outside of all of the shopping!) was a trip to Nashville. Brandon was going to meet his producer and finish work on his third album, and Eden and I decided to tag along. Since she has never flown on a plane before, we were a little nervous, but aside from a few important 'lessons,' she did great and the trip went really smoothly. Here is Eden at the airport, getting ready to go through security.

Brandon and I had a difference of opinion about what she should wear-- he suggested comfortable, but I felt it was really important that she look cute as I was sure that she would make friends this way and people would be more forgiving if she acted up (hey-- I'm just being honest here!). This plan actually did work, by the way. When we got on the plane everyone couldn't help but comment on how cute she was, and since she is such a flirt, she put on her best show! We did get low on our rations of cheerios, but I think this was mostly because dad couldn't help but share them with her. : )

The biggest lesson for us was in regards to the carseat. It seems that security is extra tight on carseats, so Eden's didn't make it to Nashville with us. In fact, neither did Brandon and my bags. Continental offered to provide us with a loaner carseat, but I was shocked when the loaner I was given was 9 years old! WHAT?!! That's not even street legal anymore! Of course, by the time we realized this we had already left the airport and were buckling her into the rental car, so we decided to just go with it. Let's just say momma wasn't really happy about it! We did receive everything shortly after dinner, so it really wasn't that big of a deal at the time, but this story is worth mentioning because it will be of larger importance in a later post. (Yeah-- get ready for that!)

We had a great time in Nashville and enjoyed several meals with the guys. Eden and I also made it out to the big shopping mall, which was CRAZY busy! Mostly though, we did a lot of hanging around the hotel room and taking it easy while the guys were working or 'networking'. haha! Here are some cute pictures of her checking out the view and sleeping in her peapod, which is her portable bed. Since daddy was out late each night, the two of us often went downstairs in the morning and made all kinds of friends. Who can resist a Reindeer bottom?!!

We were also delighted to experience Eden's first snow in Nashville! It snowed the Sunday we were leaving, and Eden just didn't know what to think about it! Here is a family pic of us in her first snow.

All bundled up at the airport and ready to head home!

Favorites

2010-11-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

Ok-- so we are on a roll with funny videos. This one is of Brandon and Eden eating Beaver Nuggets from Buccees, which are sweet puffed corn type snacks. Eden loved them and kept trying to steal them from her daddy. Seriously, I know this is my child and I'm a little biased, but this really is SO funny! At one point she tries to eat it out of Brandon's mouth...

Other than trying tasty new snacks, we have been eagerly preparing for Eden's first birthday. We can hardly believe that she is about to be one! It's been such an incredible year! The past couple of weeks I have been trying to get the perfect photo for her birthday invitations, but it's been quite the challenge now that she can crawl so quickly! Here are some of our favorites:

I especially love this one. Guess she's upset because she doesn't have the perfect shoes and purse to match?!! ; )