These are a few of my favorite things

Last week Eden turned 7 months. That truly boggles my mind how time just slips away right before your eyes. As I was thinking about how fast she was growing up, I began to wonder what will she be when she grows up? Will I be a good influence on her as a Christian mom? Will I teach her all that she needs to know for life? Questions up on questions ran through my head like a hamster running on his wheel. I did this for several minutes and then realized I was getting ahead of myself and not enjoying the time I have with her right now and that with God’s help I as well as Andrew can teach her what she needs to know. I also know that we have wonderful parents who are more then willing to offer any advice on parenting and that’s pretty special. So once I got over that hurdle I began to think of all my favorite things about Eden. Since she’s seven months old I’ll tell you seven.

One of my favorite things about Eden are her pretty blue eyes. She stills my heart every time when she looks at me with them. It’s going to be hard to say no to this sweet little girl when she beams those pretty blues my way. She defiantly gets those pretty blue eyes from her handsome dad.

Now that Eden is becoming more mobile she’s been noticing more and more. One of her favorite things to notice is cords, which scares mommy. Every time she sees a cord she drops what she’s doing and quickly crawls over to it. In the process of crawling I say with a nice but stern voice, “Eden we don’t play with cords they can hurt you.” She usually turns around and stares at me for a second, but she knows what she wants so she turns back around and keeps crawling. It really depends on the day, but sometimes she listens to me and other times I pick her up and we play with more kid appropriate toys. I’m counting this as one of my favorite things because I know she hears the concern in my voice and if she doesn’t listen to me the first time and I have to pick her up she reaches for me and puts her little arms around my neck like thank you mom for caring. I just know
she’s thinking that.

Eden loves her baths she gets so excited when she hears the water come on. I love watching her play and splash in the tub. She just babbles and babbles when she’s playing in the tub. I wish I knew what she was babbling about.

Another thing I love about our sweet little girl would be how she gets so excited about the littlest things. I love how she claps her hands while sitting on one foot and standing on the other. It’s really amazing. She’s always squealing and babbling at the top of her lungs. I love every minute of that. Last Sunday in church Eden made it through the whole service without having to leave the auditorium partly because she was asleep for most of it. Toward the end of the sermon Eden woke up and began to flirt with the elderly man behind us. She began to let out little screams because she was getting tickled at possibly the faces he was making at her. I thought I was going to have to take her at but she turned around and found one of her toys. It was then time to stand up and sing the invitation song. As we were singing Eden decide to join in at the top of her lungs and babbled the whole time while clapping her hands. I admit I thought it was a little funny as well as the people in front of us and beside us. I couldn’t stop laughing. After services were over the people in front of us turned around and complemented Eden on how well she sung that song. I love listenting to her babble or sing.

I also love waking up in the morning and seeing our precious babies smiling face. I love how she’s always smiling. She really makes me want to smile all the time too.

Eden’s open mouth kisses are the best as well. Andrew and I love giving Eden kisses but as soon as she returns them our face becomes a slip and slide. We love every minute of it.

Eden is now eating 3rd foods which are pretty much the same as 1st and 2nd foods but a little thicker. I thought I would try the Chicken and Vegetable dinner just to see what she thought about it and her face said it all. I love the silly faces she makes. She keeps me laughing that’s for sure.

Sure mom chicken vegetable dinner sounds great

Ewww I take that back

I think the chicken dinner looks better on my head then in my mouth

Pumpkin Delight

I have some serious catching up to do on my blogging, but before I do some catching up, I would like to share with you something that happened today.
I was in the kitchen cleaning up some dishes after putting together this wonderful looking cake recipe I found that I will share. As I was washing these dishes Eden now 7 months old crawled over to see what I was up to. My back was turned to her but I was acknowledging that she was there by saying; I’m so glad you came in here mommy’s doing the dishes and will be….. but before I could finish my sentence Eden let out the biggest squeal demanding that I turn around, which I did. Once I was turned around she began to clap her hands and babble like she usually does, but today she did something a little different. Eden actually waved. It’s true! So I said hold that thought and I ran in to get the video camera hoping that she would do it again and she did.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Can you tell I’m a little proud?


After taking a few minutes to capture a great moment I finished glazing my Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cake. I was surprised how well it turned out. It was really suppose to be a bundt cake but I didn’t have a bundt cake dish so I improvised.


I hope it tastes as good as it sounds. Here is the recepie. Hope you all enjoy.

Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cake

Cake
4 large eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tsp of baking soda
1 Tbsp. of pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp. of salt
2 cups of canned pumpkin puree (I just bought two cans of pumpkin and then pureed it in the blinder by adding just a little milk.)

Glaze
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 tbsp of light corn syrup
1 cup of heavy cream

Make cake: Preheat oven to 350° Grease and flour a 9-inch bundt cake pan or two round cake dishes. Set aside.
Beat eggs and sugar until blended. Beat in oil. Sift flour, baking soda, pumpkin spice and salt into egg mixture. Fold in dry ingredients and pumpkin puree. Pour batter into pan and bake 45 minutes check with a knife if it comes out clean your good if not bake until knife comes out clean.

Make glaze: Place chocolate and corn syrup in a heatproof bowl. In a pan, warm cream over medium heat until it simmers. Pour cream over chocolate, let stand 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Curious George

I had mentioned a book called the Love Dare in my last post that our Wednesday night class just started studying. I’m truly excited about this class. I was looking through the book trying to get a feel for it and I came across this note so I thought I would share it. The note is in reference to having the word of God in your life.

Lord, open my eyes that I may see truth and my ears to hear truth.
Open my heart to receive it by faith.
Renew my mind to keep it in hope.
Surrender my will that I may live it with love.

Remind me that I am responsible when I hear it.
Help me desire to obey what You say through it.
Transform my life that I may know it.
Burden my heart that I may share it.

Speak now, Lord.
Give me a passion to know and follow Your will.
Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

After reading this note I began to think about two things. First, how wonderful it is to have the word of God in my life, and second, knowing that I have the word of God in my life, do I truly open my heart to it or even long for it. Just by reading bits and pieces of the book I can already tell it will be an awakening for me. Something I truthfully need. I’m not just reading the book by myself though it’s a joint effort between Andrew and I, which is even more encouraging. I can’t wait to dive into the book with intensity and work through our first dare, hint: It has something to do with being patient.

Up next is a video I took of Eden playing in her room. She’s becoming more and more curious as the week goes by. I thought this was pretty funny and wanted to share it.
Oh and don’t worry. I got rid of the trash bag lining she was playing with, or should I say hid it so she can’t play with it anymore.

My Montage 10/17/08

My Birthday Weekend

Wednesday the 8th was my 23rd Birthday, my first Birthday to ever have in Texas. I have always wondered if Birthdays were bigger in Texas, you know since everything is bigger in Texas. I would have to say I did have a big special birthday. Andrew and Eden got me my favorite flowers, stargazer lily’s; they also took me to lunch at the Wing Stop, my choice because I love their wings and seasoned fries.

I was also given a fall wreath from my mom and dad which was beautiful.

For dinner Andrew took me to Olive Garden and then we went to church were we have started this new class based on the movie Fireproof. I think it’s going to be a wonderful class. There are several couples of different ages which is great because the comments made in class are based on their life’s lessons so far as a couple. After church Andrew took me to get ice cream at Cold Stone, of course I picked my favorite ice cream chocolate cake batter with brownie and caramel. That was a wonderful treat to end a wonderful Birthday. I would also like to mention within that same week Eden really started crawling noted by the video we took. We didn’t try to bribe her at all.

My Montage 10/15/08

This weekend we were able to visit our family in Springdale during Andrew’s weekend off. We left Thursday afternoon and arrived late that night were we stayed with my parents. Friday was our day designated to go to the pumpkin patch. We found a wonderful pumpkin patch on the outskirts of Townie Town. It was a beautiful farm where we were able to pick our own pumpkin. They had so many pumpkins to choose from. Some of the pumpkins were huge and funny looking. They also had long steamed roses, tomatoes, strawberries, and apples. It was so peaceful walking around enjoying the fresh air and all of the fruits and vegetables. After walking around for a while we found the perfect pumpkins for us. The pumpkin we picked was tall and plump and it had the perfect long steam. It was a great pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern out of. Our long evening at the pumpkin patch ended well and our hunger was getting the best of us. That night we decided to eat a Catfish Hole with Papa Lowe, Gammy, and uncle Hunkie. It was great spending time with them and eating catfish.

Our Saturday was also filled with lots of fun. We met grandfather sir, grandma Venable, Mark, and Renee for lunch and then after lunch we went to trees and trends as well as hobby lobby to look for some fall decorations. That evening was the big birthday bash at JB Hunt Park. All of my extended family came as well as some close friends. Eden was able to swing for the first time with uncle Cary and play with Taylor. It was a wonderful Birthday bash and I could not have asked for a better day then that. It was fun spending time with everyone and catching up. All in all my weekend was amazing.

Eden and Taylor playing at the park

My Montage 10/15/08

This is Eden sliding in the tub

My Montage 10/15/08

I thought I would add this part because it meant a lot to me. On the way back home Monday Andrew let me drive while he read to me a few chapters out of my book Breaking Dawn. What a wonderful husband I have.

To Searcy and Back

Back to Searcy again and what a fun time we had. Andrew and I were talking on the way to Searcy reminiscing about what a great time we had there while we were in college. We talked about how we missed going to chapel, one thing I thought we would never say. All of the memories we have of Harding were so wonderful. We have so many friends that are very dear to our heart that we met there as well as friends we have had for a while that we got even closer to. I’m so thankful for having these friendships that will last a life time and I hope Eden one day has good Christian friends as well.
Our time in Searcy always seems so short when we visit, but while we were there we were able to meet up with the Howard’s which was a big treat. Eden saw Abby for the first time and just loved her. She also met some of their cats and their dog which she petted or more a less swatted at. It was just great to sit and catch up. We also met up with Megan, Jennie, Hannah, Leslie, Leigh, Alex, and Caleb at Wings to go, a new restaurant in Searcy. It was so wonderful to see them all. They even remembered my Birthday which is coming up soon, and had cupcakes for me. I was also surprised with a gift. I just love my big grey purse that comes with its own bag to store it in. Andrew thought that was funny. I couldn’t have been more excited. It was a treat in itself just to sit down with friends we don’t see very often.
That night we stayed with Josh and Ashley who live in Little Rock. We stayed up and visited and listened to some of Joshes medical stories. I even finished Eclipse! Finally! Ashley let me borrow the last one Breaking Dawn and I can’t wait to finish it. I have even got Andrew interested in the series, well by accident really. He only read Eclipse and he has already finished breaking dawn. It took him two days. REALLY! He keeps asking me what part I’m on. I guess it’s a good thing that he has read them so we can talk about them afterwards. Enough about the books though.
The next day we headed back to Searcy where we met up with Aunt Nutmeg. We took a stroll around the campus and met some of Megan’s friends in the music building. I was also able to visit with some of my teachers which was nice. Lunch time rolled around and we all decided that pizza sounded good, so we ate at Brick Oven. After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed back to Searcy for dinner later that night with Josh, Ashley, and Carson. Our two days in the Searcy/ Little Rock area was nice. We can’t wait to go back and visit soon.