Tricks and Treats

Eden's first Halloween completely tired her out...actually it tired all of us out. With all of the activities and excitement of the day she really never got her long naps so she was way off her schedule. With this meant a baby who would not wake up for anything through the night. I usually wake up to feed her at 2 a.m. (doctor's orders) and her and I had been waking up automatically so I stopped using the alarm. Apparently you get us tired enough and we will sleep from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. without waking at all. Whoops! Anyway, she is continuing her catch up on sleep so I will take this opportunity to post a couple of pictures from her first Halloween.

Brett and Stephanie (Mal's brother and sister-in-law) came down to spend a few hours with Eden since they hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks. They actually were also the ones who gave Eden her first costume. Since the day we told them we were pregnant they informed us that they would be giving our baby a bear suit and the baby would be required to wear it every time they were around. They certainly delivered on that promise. Here she is posing for mommy...

sidenote: please forgive the poor photography. I am forcing myself to learn more about my DSLR and sometimes that means pictures don't turn out the way I want them to. Like the time we took pictures in a dark room and I refused to use my flash...yeah...

That's our little bear. Oh, and might I add that this baby LOVES her bear suit. Honestly, we would put her in it and she would instantly fall asleep. If you have a baby that doesn't sleep well, you need to buy this bear suit. Only bad thing is it is SUPER warm. Like so warm we could fry an egg on her head. Don't worry we didn't fry an egg on her head because I don't like fried eggs we never let her get that warm . Oh and see that cute orange pail in her hand? We found that in the Target dollar section...our favorite score of the season.

Here are a couple photos of Eden's aunt and uncle marveling at her cuteness. She truly is irresistible.

 For trick-or-treating we took her to see her grandma and grandpa Phillips (Mal's parents). She could not eat the candy, but my mom went out and bought her a couple of toys to play with (she is totally one of those grandparents that can't help but spoil the baby). Actually, we all got spoiled...she bought Josh and I some treats too...what a great lady she is! We also went and visited her "aunt" Ruby and "uncle" Daniel. They aren't blood related, but we consider them family nonetheless. I was unable to take photos, but just know she had a fun time!

We also carved a pumpkin for Eden since babies wielding knives is not really an accepted practice around these parts. We chose a mouse. Well, not just any mouse...THE mouse. As in, MICKEY MOUSE. I love that guy. If I could marry him, I would...sorry Minnie, but he's all mine. Josh can take all the credit for the actual carving, the only part I like is yanking out all of the guts. It's my favorite. I purposely take a long time so I can squish the pumpkin guts between my fingers and scrounge for as many pumpkin seeds as possible. It's a sickness, but I live with it.

Want to know a fun factoid about Halloween? Well, this October 31 marked what would have been our 4 year dating anniversary. Yes, Josh and I officially started dating on Halloween. We actually stayed up and watched THREE of the Halloween movies. After that night we were inseparable. I truly love that man...he is my best friend and I am so happy that he was crazy enough to marry me a mere 8 months later.

We hope you all had a great Halloween!! And in the words of the Mickey Mouse Club, "see you real soon!"

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It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Warning: This post may or may not use the word punkin one too many times.

One thing Josh and I love to do in the fall is visit punkin patches. It is just so fun to munch on apple cider donuts and meander through the long lines of punkins in the fields. Last year we visited one particular pumpkin patch and started to realize that we needed a baby in order to continue our tradition of visiting these marvelous places. We really were the awkward adults wandering through all of the kiddie activities. I am sure more than a few thought we may be creepers...I mean we do kind of have that look. Well, this year we were in luck because we had acquired a baby of our very own! When I say acquire it almost sounds like we may have stolen her, but as you can see by all my pregnancy posts she is in fact our baby. Now that we have settled that bit of nonsense, I will start inserting some pictures because I have just made this post beyond strange.

Yep, that's our little girl posing as an apple at our favorite punkin patch, Bauman Farms. We may or may not have received multiple dirty looks for forcing our one month old to pose in a cutout and yet that did not deter us from doing another one...

I think she has quite the old man face in this photo. Makes me laugh. Actually we laugh a lot at this girls expense, she just does the funniest things. I will also admit to videotaping her often just so we can make fun of her later on in life as well. I am a mean mom, but she loves me anyway.

One thing I had realized was the only real picture we had taken of me and her was when I was sitting in the hospital bed (granted Josh has like 5 million photos with her). That was absolutely not acceptable. So, we took this opportunity to do a mini photo shoot in the garden area of the farm.

Take a moment to enjoy this pretty flower while I take a quick blogging break to feed the hungry bird (aka Eden).

Alright, thank you for your patience. Now, even though he has 5 million pictures, I did take one photo of Josh with Eden that makes my heart melt. I really do love the two of them...

So after our photo shoot in the garden and a very reluctant trip to a port-a-potty (seriously people, I'll pay you to have a REAL bathroom!) we then headed to the punkin patch to pick some pretty punkins....oh and torture Eden Rae with some more bizarre photos.

No, that is not Eden, those are what I so nicely named "punkin butts." Actually I ran around shouting, "It's a butt!" much like they do in Finding Nemo. Okay, nevermind, maybe its just me who understands childish humor. Anyway, I wanted to bring one home, but I think Josh feared the worst because I couldn't tear myself away from these strange creatures so I left them there. I just kept taking photos of them...they are mesmerizing. Okay, here are some pictures from Eden's punkin photo shoot. 

As you can tell she REALLY loved being forced to sit on top of a punkin while mommy snapped her picture. One day she will despise me for this, but for now she has forgotten it even happened and loves me just the same.

After our fun in the punkin patch we picked up a few punkins and then decided it was time to head home. Okay technically it was a mutual decision because we were tired, but truthfully the farm was closing as well (hint: do not attempt to leave at closing time on a Saturday night...leaving the parking lot took an hour...just don't do it).

Well, that was our big punkin patch excursion. We had tons of fun and I kind of want to go again. I can never have enough punkin time. Thankfully we will be carving punkins tonight with some lovely friends so I think that should keep me happy for awhile. Hope you all get to have a chance to visit a punkin patch before the season is over, it is well worth your time!

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1 Month

A week ago today our little baby turned ONE month old. It is amazing how you can be so excited and yet so sad all at the same time with each passing month. I get so excited watching how she grows each day, but then so sad to know that I will never get her newborn days back. Either way we are continually falling more and more in love with this punkin. Yes, Josh corrects me every time I say punkin, and yes I refuse to actually say the world correctly. Oh and I do also find any opportunity to say punkin as well...being annoying is just something I do well.

So, in this past month Eden's personality has really stayed the same...we just get to see it more because she stays awake longer. This girl truly is half her mom and half her dad when it comes to personality and looks. She certainly is 100% laid back all day long just like her dad, except when it comes to her tummy and diaper. If this girl is hungry, she will make sure to throw out a little yell and put on the pouty face. You do not keep this girl from her food. Seriously, I didn't know she could inherit this trait from me, but she certainly has. NEVER EVER get in my way when I am hungry. Point made. Also, Eden has started to notice when her diaper is dirty and apparently wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Again, another trait that I really didn't know she could inherit so quickly, but she, just like her mommy, could do without the dirt. Do you think this means she will love to clean just as much as me? I may just have to start training her at a young age.

4 Week Stats

Length: 20 inches (from what I can tell)
Weight: 6 lbs. 13 oz.
*Actual measurements were taken at 3.5 weeks

This girl is growing! She finally grew out of her preemie clothes and is now successfully filling out her newborn outfits. This is good because they make MUCH cuter things in newborn sizes. Although really I am excited for her to fit in the 0-3 month outfits because that is when she can start wearing her Old Navy and Baby Gap outfits and I am sucker for those.

Just as last time I will also document what she is up to at 1 month.

You are very observant and love to look at everything
You discovered your toes today
You are so loud when you are "filling your diaper" that mommy has to take you out of church
You ALWAYS wake up the second Pastor Tim starts talking on Sunday mornings
You think all your mom is good for is supplying food (this may actually be true)
You went through 84 diapers in 6 days (this is why we will be cloth diapering soon)
You have been enjoying tummy time on your playmat
You are patient with mommy during her obsessive photoshoots
You LOVE your afternoon walks around the neighborhood
You sleep through every car ride
You impress your parents with the distance you can spit up
You absolutely love to snuggle

There are so many little things about Eden that I could include here, but that would just bore you...and maybe you are bored already, but I just don't care :)

So as not to disappoint all of you beautiful people, I will leave you with some photos from our last mini photo shoot. Poor girl has to learn to have my camera in her fact half the day.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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Just Can't Get Enough

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0 Months

I cannot believe our teeny tiny baby is almost 1 month old! I do not like that time moves that fast...although thinking back to the hospital stay it feels like its been forever. Josh and I are taking a photo of Eden every month for the first 12 months of her life. I think it will be so fun to watch how she grows. This one was taken at 1 week old. Already she looks so much different at 3 weeks old. I also want to document what she has been up to in that month.

• You love to squeak and squeal, especially when you are sleepy. 
• You LOVE bath time.
• You would sleep through the night if we could let you (we just got the okay to only wake her up once during the night, hooray!)
• You can sleep through ANYTHING (your sister barking, the vacuum, doors slamming...etc.)
• We call you the man child because, well, you sound like a man when you do "number two"
• You love your doggie sister and she loves you (as documented by MANY pictures of her kissing you)
• You don't cry much, just when mommy takes too long to feed you
• You have the cutest cry in the whole entire world and sometimes we want you to cry so we can hear it
• We shout out "POWER FIST" because you like to pump your fist into the air all the time
• Your nickname is "Frogger" because you bend your legs like a frog
• You are already a daddy's girl
• You have slept in your crib since day one and you seem to love it
• We started you on binkies, and sometimes you love it and sometimes you throw it at mommy

Okay I could go on forever...this girl is full of entertainment. We cannot believe how strong of a personality she has at such a young age. We have even taken her on her first car trip all the way to Washington and she slept the whole way there and the whole way back. We keep waiting for her to become some terror child that everyone said she would be, but so far she has been a great baby. 

2 Week Stats
Weight: 5 lbs. 13 oz (FINALLY back to birth weight) --5th percentile
Length: 19 1/4" --15th percentile
Head Circumference: 34 centimeters --10th percentile

Basically you are a small fry.

Here are a few pictures documenting what we have done over the last few weeks (for the first two I was on bed rest).

 Sleeping in her bouncer

 "Mom, stop taking my picture!"

 First bath

Well, that's all I can do for now, I have to go get the little one. I still don't know how moms have time to blog. I am so busy feeding and changing diapers and then rushing to try to eat and hit the potty that I really never can get to the computer. Thankfully I found a spare moment. I promise I am still planning to write about her birth story...which honestly was not bad at all so sorry that I scared some of you :)

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