Catching up! Misc. Pictures

I know Brad loves when I have projects for him, like putting together bookshelves in this case. What made it even better is that he had two great little helpers!




Eden and Ruby are pretty good friends these days, and Ruby is extremely patient with Eden's persistence on pushing her in the shopping cart for long periods of time.



Notice a trend here? Eden likes to kiss Ruby which kind of grosses me out, but whatever.

Who can resist the skinny jeans on these legs?? I love when she wears these pants... so cute.

Cousins

I love that I'm able to live close to my family for so many reasons, one of them is that Eden can play with her cousins. It's always so entertaining to watch how the kids interact, and with this group of kids, there is never a dull moment!

Bubble Blowing

To some this may seem silly, but we hit a very huge milestone yesterday. Since the stint came out in late September, Ede has been able to wear her speaker valve again and we are making progress with her voice. Yesterday we had the speaker valve on and I was blowing bubbles for her, and she insisted that she try to do it. In the past, she puckers her lips really cute, but she has never actually ever been able to get any air out of her mouth, and therefore has never blown bubbles.

She was persistent yesterday though and failed a bunch of times before she finally figured out how to get the air up through her airway, out of her mouth, and through the bubble wand to actually create bubbles! Like I said, kind of silly, but to us this is huge because she is finally now capable, and has figured out how to get a big breath out of her mouth. I'm not sure who was more excited by this to be honest. She was shocked by it just like I was, but she was so excited and happy too. For the next hour, she just sat on the porch and blew bubbles over and over again, each time stopping to smile and laugh between blows. It was definitely a precious moment and one I was so happy to witness.

With each sound of her raspy voice, and every small step like bubble blowing yesterday, we are seeing the progress that's being made on her airway and we are so excited. Since her reconstructive surgery in March, it's been a long road, but we are making progress and it's absolutely awesome!

Pumpkin Carving with the Gundersons

This past weekend we were lucky to have the Gunderson family come stay with us for a few days. It went by too fast, but we were able to have so much fun hanging out, eating lots, and playing lots of games. We were also able to carve pumpkins together which is always so much fun. Thanks Scott for being the photographer!









Ruby was very intrigued by the taste of pumpkin.




And here we are with the finished pumpkins! Poor Rhys was sleeping so he missed all the pumpkin carving action, but I'd say we are a pretty talented group of carvers! :)
Notice Ruby posed perfectly at Brad's feet. This was done completely on her own. She hates being left out of anything, and here is proof of that!



Thanks Scott and Cindy for coming out to stay for a few days. We loved having you here and can't wait to hang out again!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday was another successful pumpkin patch for Brad and Northwestern Mutual. I think this is the 3rd or 4th year Brad has done this now, and it just keeps getting bigger and better each time. The weather was absolutely beautiful and there was a great turn-out, which I'm sure makes all the work put into it completely worth it!


We told Eden to go pick out a pumpkin, and she kept going for the plastic ones with happy faces. These were used to decorate the patch, but they are also used to decorate our house every other day during fall, so she recognized them and kept signing "home" everytime she would pick one up.


We finally convinced her to pick out a real one, and she got one just the right size for her to pick up.


I was helping out by taking pictures for the families who came to the pumpkin patch, so my awesome mother was willing to come hang out with Eden for a couple hours while I was busy. We are so grateful for her willingness to help us when we need it!



These days it's even more difficult to get a good picture from Eden. Usually she strikes some awkward pose, but now she has really gotten into making funny faces and so this is the type of face I get from her most times when I try to get a picture...


We were able to get one good smiling one though which was somewhat of a miracle. I just love her silly personality, so it's fun to capture all the many sides of her!

Gymnastics!

Every Tuesday I take Eden to a gymnastics class that has been so much fun, and actually a pretty good exercise routine for me too! This particular week, my mom came to watch and I am so grateful she brought her camera and got some great pictures too!

In the beginning of class we will all be out on the big mat doing stretches, and other fun things like bear walks, marching, and running. For the most part Eden loves this, but when it comes time for the running she go around about once and then get mad because I won't carry her. :)





After the mat time, the teacher has set up a bunch of different stations all focusing on using different muscles in their bodies. Eden does really well about the first time around each station, and then when we start to go again she picks and chooses which ones she wants to do. She usually tries to avoid the rope swing, and anything where she has to hang!









After doing the exercise stations a few times, we go over to the trampoline and the foam pit. Each kid takes a turn on the trampoline with the teacher, and while it's not their turn, they can play around in the foam pit. Eden's usual routine is to get down into the foam pit, hand the blocks up to me, then she gets out and builds a big tower and knocks it back into the foam pit. We end up doing this a couple times in between her trampoline turns. This particular day, a boy in Eden's class thought it would be fun to bury her in the foam pit and she wasn't too sure what to think about it. Once I dug her out, she didn't want to get back in until he was gone. :)




She really enjoys jumping on the trampoline and has learned how to do "seat drops" really good. She absolutely loves to get praise from her teacher and is always looking at her after she does something to see if she does a good job. It's pretty cute.



At the end of class is Eden's favorite part because all the kids line up along the mat and their teacher gives them a sticker and a stamp on the hand. For some reason Eden is WAY into stamps and always insists that she gets a stamp on both hands. Anytime I talk about the gym class she shows me her hand and where she wants the stamp, so I know this is her favorite thing! Then she admires her stamp the whole ride home.






Overall I would say putting her in this class has been a success. It's great physical exercise for her, it's great for her to be around other kids, and it's something she seems to enjoy - well, most of the time. :)

Thanks mom for all the cute pictures!!