Yes

"Tomorrow" was one of those days.  The kind that leaves me strutting through the house because I've got to be the world's best mother.  In fact, I bet they'll make a movie after me one day!  Luckily for my pride, I know that tomorrow will come and I'll be back in the races again. But for today, I'll strut all I like.

What's Red and Raised and Itchy all over?

Shingles.  I started finding symptoms for shingles around Thanksgiving and I've been on this AWFUL medicine ever since.  The actual shingles wasn't so bad.  I was a itchy and my side was pretty sore to touch, but it wasn't anything I would've gone to the doctor for had my sister Katie not looked at it and told me she was pretty sure it was shingles and that since I was pregnant I should go in right away.

We caught it really early on so it never got to the intense stages.  I'm really lucky that we caught it so early because with my pregnancy it could've been really dangerous for the baby/me.  I'm the girl that doesn't take medicine for anything and NEVER goes to the doctor.  I probably would've been a sea of rashes before I had said anything to my OB/GYN.

Anyway, like I said, the actual shingles wasn't too bad, it was the medicine that threatened my life:).  They warned me when they gave it to me that during pregnancy it can make you really sick and drowsy.  As in, I wasn't allowed to drive the whole time I was on the medicine drowsy.  That was a bummer as it's Christmas time and I really needed to be running errands.

I was much more sick during the 10 days of medication than I was the entire first trimester with baby and I was pretty mad about it too. Wouldn't you know this would all come during Eden's "I'm-really-onery-and-getting-teeth-and-a-cold-and-deciding-to-tear-the-house-apart" and while Nathan has been pulling practically all nighters to get his homework/work done.  Luckily I have some awesome friends who helped me with some of my office work and even took Eden one afternoon so I could take a nap.  THANK YOU!

But, now I'm done with the medicine and I'll be able to handle Eden's temper tantrums and craziness a little better.  (Yes, my 13 month old is throwing temper tantrums!!! AHHH! I'm only imagining what will be coming in another year.  YIKES!)  This child knows what she wants and she lets me know.  Not to worry, I'm a tough cookie and I'm just as stubborn as she is.  I pick my battles, but once I've acted, I hold my ground.  Most of the time.  Sometimes after 45 minutes of her crying that she wants more food while there is perfectly good food that she likes on the high chair tray in front of her (she just wants something else) I give in because I will punch myself in the head if I have to endure this for any longer!  Can you tell it's been one of those days?!  Some nights I put that adorable child in her bed for the night and want to shout "Hallelujah!!!  Some nights I put her in her bed and wish I could keep her up with me because we've had so much fun together and she's been my little sweet heart... maybe tomorrow will be one of those days?????

A Stranger's Advice

Do you ever wonder if some people simply don't have filters that alert them as to what things are publicly acceptable to say to strangers?  When Eden was about 2 months old, I was walking through the grocery store, searching for the best deals and minding my own business when a woman stops me.  **note to all "to-be" mothers.  The stopping was not unusual.  You will automatically need to factor in about a half more hour of time when going ANYWHERE public because people will want to see your baby and talk to them and touch them and other creepy things.  Maybe this should only be a warning to mothers in Rexburg, Idaho-I'm not sure...I've never lived somewhere else with kids.

The unusual part comes when said woman tells me that "[I] need to get busy" because if I produce children as beautiful as this, I should not be holding back.  Enter awkward pause to which I say something really clever like..."haha..............thank you?"  I mean what do you say to that?  "Ok?", "I'll keep that in mind?", "Stick your nose in your own business?" Well, whatever I should have said, I didn't (I obviously don't own the "what-to-say-when-strangers-say-crazy-things-to-you" filter, I left the store laughing pretty hard.  Classic Rexburg.  Classic.  

I had forgotten that story until I sat down to write this blog...funny how we have little flashback memories.  Who knows...maybe this next baby is here is large part because of that crazy lady.  But, probably not.  

I keep telling Nathan...maybe we should've stopped with Eden.  Our poor other children have no chance after she's taken all of our good genes.  What about that poor 27th child that somehow ends up with all the worst parts of both of us?  

In all seriousness...we're thrilled to be welcoming another sweet child into our home. 

 Nathan will graduate in April and baby will come in May/June.  Hopefully by June we'll know we have a job somewhere and we'll probably be moving about a month after the baby is born.  Joy. (I mean that both literally and sarcastically).  But, if not, we have our managing position here until we can find a job.  I'm not sure what our future holds, but I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father that has shown me over and over again that if I trust in Him, everything somehow works out. I'm grateful that (with a lot of coaxing) I can have faith enough to say "okay" even when I don't know what's ahead.  And who knows, I may turn into a crazy lady at the grocery store one day and alter someone's future.  But, probably not.

Our life. Featuring: Eden in Things

 Sometimes, when dad gets you dressed, your clothes are on backwards all day.

Eden in a cupboard:    I came around the corner in the kitchen to find Eden and she wasn't there, but I heard mysterious noises from inside the cupboard.  Upon ruling out mice or rats, I bravely opened the cupboard to find...the child:) Did I mention that I love my kitchen?  Notice that the cupboard is empty.  Not because she took things out, but because it's empty all the time.  This is how much storage I have!

 Eden LOVES reading.  Almost half of her play time consists of her looking at her books/me reading them to her.  She pulls out the bin, tips it over and sits there until she's looked through every one.

 This time she is taking things out of the cupboard.  Notice the cooking sheet she's sitting on.  Half my day is spent playing with her and the other half is spent cleaning up after her.

 My family came up during their fall break of school.  We decided to take a trip to the sand dunes, it was so fun, even though it was pretty cold.

Dad at the bottom of our sledding hill.  The sledding is pretty slow on sand, the real test of strength came in running back up the hill.  The sand came half way up your shins so it was pretty deep.  Ty was BY FAR the best at running the hill.

   The van got stuck in the sand and we had to dig/push it out.  Classic.

Eden wearing her 700 layers of clothes.  It was the day after this that we made a trip to Idaho Falls to buy her a coat.  It's much easier to get her ready now.

Eden in a hole:   The hole was maticulously dug and preserved by Ty with the help of Dad and Aubrey and each of us took a turn standing in the hole.

Clapping for herself after she got out of the hole.  She though she did a pretty great job.  Notice that she is only wearing socks.  We're still working on the whole "shoes are nice, they will not hurt you" thing.  She would've cried the whole time had we made her wear shoes...so a bunch of socks had to sofice.

                                                               
Eden in the laundry: Nathan was helping me with the laundry today.  When he came back to the front room to fold the clothes this is what I found.  Eden thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

Family Pictures

Dear World,

Please enjoy a few family pictures that my wonderful friend, Angie, took for us.  Eden graced us with a wonderful stinky diaper right after the first picture, and she was done about 10 minutes after that.  But, we still managed to get a few good shots.

Why do I Love this Girl?

I can't believe that Eden is 11 months old!  I'm pretty sure that I was pregnant for my whole life and now she's almost a year old.  One look at that face and you'll know why I'm head over heels for her, but I'll add a few more things to love.

•  Eden is so empathetic to everyone.  If anyone else is crying, she starts crying.  She has a baby doll that laughs when you push her stomach.  The problem is that every 7th time you push her stomach, she cries.  And when the doll cries, Eden cries.
• She gives kisses which consist of her leaning toward you and giving you a big ole open mouth slobber on the cheek, or the nose, or wherever she lands.
• She cuddles with me while I rock her to sleep
• She dances to any music she hears.  During conference, any time the choir came on she was dancing away.  Her dance moves don't exactly match the MOTAB style.
• She is afraid of the printer.  Classic.  But that doesn't stop her from pushing all the buttons again and again.  After she's pushed the buttons, she starts crying because of the noises it makes.
• She is also afraid of/doesn't like (who knows which one) shoes.  If she sees her shoes she starts crying and FORGET IT if you try to put them on her!
• She loves babies.  Particularly their eyes.  I guess what goes around comes around.  Every infant was poked in the eye by a baby, and every baby will poke an infant in the eye.  Most of the time this action is followed by a proud "EYE!" ( Not Eden yet, but it's only a matter of time...) 
• She continues to sleep through the night and take two naps during the day.  Bless that child.
• She signs "more", but to her it means "I want that". She does it anytime you have something she wants and it's adorable and sometimes frustrating because I can't figure out what she wants.
• She loves to laugh and she and I laugh our way through every day.  This statement may seem contradictory, seeing as I posted two things above that make her cry, but I listed them because that's really the only time she cries.
• Still no teeth.
• I just LOVE this amazing girl!  Happy 11 months!

Sometimes

Sometimes when you want to blog, your pictures won't upload to your computer.  

Sometimes when you go to church, your daughter will go to the bathroom while you're changing her and get it ALL over her dress.  

Sometimes when you drive "said child" home to get her a change of clothes (because you thought she was old enough to not have to pack extras), she will fall asleep.

Sometimes when your child falls asleep in the car on the way home and there's only 20 minutes left of church, you don't know what to do.

Sometimes, your child eats bananas after you've bathed her.  Sometimes she rubs the bananas in her clean hair. Sometimes I wonder why in the world I feed her bananas after her bath.

Sometimes, when you put shoes on your child, she will cry until you take them off of her.

Sometimes your 10 1/2 month child will still have NO teeth.

Sometimes when you go outside to turn off the sprinklers at night, you will lock yourself out of the house...sometimes you will have to knock on every window in the house to find the room your husband is in and have him let you in.

Sometimes you get stuck in the bathroom with no toilet paper.

And sometimes, even when all the craziness of a day happens, you realize it's what makes life worth living.

Fun in the Sun: The Picture Recap

                                        Here are some of our wonderful summer memories...

                                      Eden waking up with a full-on mohawk every morning.

                                        My sister, Aubrey, riding the wiggle cars with Eden.

                                Nathan and Eden on the wiggle cars.  She loves her daddy.

 I love putting her hair in pig-tails, but when she sleeps they always get pulled out.  Here she is needing a nap.  She is never afraid to tell us exactly how she is feeling.

 Nathan's mom and her siblings had a big family reunion in Rexburg this summer.  We played every sport imaginable and laughed like crazy with family we haven't seen in a long time.  It was such a blast.  The picture above shows Nathan jumping over the tennis net while we played.

 Nathan's sister, Breeana, with Eden...Thank goodness for our family who helped with Eden so that we could play some sports while we were there.  Eden hadn't taken a nap all day, so she was having a rough time by this point in the day.

 Later in the summer, we went to Pine View with my dad's family.  This is early in the morning looking over the lake from the camp site.  It was so much fun to be able to wake board and tube this year.  A huge cheer for not being pregnant in the summer!

                  I just love this picture of Nathan and Eden.  They weren't even posing.  This is at the lake.

             On the same trip, we had a reunion with just my siblings and parents.  It was so much fun to all be together again.  When the Williams get together, there is always a trip to the church to play sports of some kind.  This time, we opted for volleyball.  What a blast!  Kyson kept himself occupied by riding the wiggle car around.  It added an extra level of difficulty as we had to try to miss him as we played.

 Just a few cuties of Eden...can't resist.  She is my happiness.  I spend half my day laughing so hard at the things that she does.  Whenever I laugh she starts squealing and laughing (see the second picture).  She is also starting to suck her thumb...NO!  Maybe I should let her have the pacifier so that she won't go to her thumb...thoughts?  Advice?  Help.

 The other night, we went to the state fair with some of our friends.  If you ever live in Idaho, you need to go to a state fair and a demo derby.  Both things are a cultural experience and you will laugh your way through the whole thing.  Just to give you a taste of the experience, Nathan tried a piece of chocolate covered bacon.  That pretty much sums up the entire trip.

 This is what Eden looks like every morning as she tries to pic up her slippery fruit off her tray.  Because she doesn't have ANY teeth yet, I still have to break things up fairly small and it's so hard for her to pick up.

 Her two favorite things.  1. her bear 2. the chair that she can pull herself up on, climb under, walk along, fall and bruise her face on...you get the idea.

 Here she is standing by herself not holding on at all.  This is a new skill and she can't do it for very long, but she tries is every time she pulls herself up.

 When she stands on her own, she also tries to walk.  This is why she has the bruise on her right cheek. She can't walk AT ALL, but she thinks she can.  And she forgets that she can't about 2 minutes after she's fallen and will do it all over again.

 This is a great picture that shows classic Eden things.  Here she is pulling herself up on her favorite toy.  Pay close attention to the position of her mouth.  She is in the process of making a smacking noise.  This is the noise I hear 85% of the time she is awake.

My sweet little thing.  It's about time to cut her bangs again.; they're starting to hang in her eyes.

That's a piece of our life. Just one other thing...last night we went out to dinner with our friends.  Three couples, four kids.  We went to a super crowded restaurant and we told them we'd be just fine in a four person booth because that's all they had open.  So the six of us crowded in to the booth and we set up two high chairs for Eden and the 1 1/2 year old and then put the two babies in the car seats behind them.  The waiter had to move the two car seats and the two high chairs to get our food into us and the whole thing was pretty funny.  We spent the whole night laughing and we gave a pretty good tip.  From now on, they will have a sign on their door that says, Doutre's, Merrell's, and Cooper's NOT WELCOME.

Upgrade From Trailer and Other Noteworthy News

It's been quite awhile since I last posted, but I've been busy.  Playing is a major priority this summer as it's the first summer that Nathan hasn't been doing school since we've been married.  Nathan is still working and doing an internship, but that's slow compared to what he has been doing.

Since we last wrote, we have moved from our beloved trailer into a bigger and nicer apartment.  Is it funny to say that we miss that old trailer?  We had so many wonderful memories in that place, I look back with nothing but fond thoughts.  I learned to love and enjoy my sweet Eden there and learned how to support Nathan in school without my going to school at the same time.  Sounds little, but it was a big transition for me.

We are still managing apartments which is such a blessing, but now my office is in my house so Eden can sleep while I work.  I already feel like I'm a better mom here than having to cart her with me.  I set up my office hours to be during her naps and I get to play with her the rest of the day.  We have some serious fun now that she can interact.  ***Note to all who do not have children yet...You will never feel cooler than when your baby is about 9 months old. (Maybe it gets even better as they get a bit older, but 9 months is all I've got to work with right now).  Eden thinks I am so funny and I love it.  If someone looked in the window, they would think I was crazy as I jump around singing and making crazy faces, but I can make Eden laugh so hard she can't breath for 10 minutes at a time.  Yes, I am in my prime.  It's amazing how little things like that can make you so incredibly happy.

Nathan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary just two days ago.  I can't believe it's been that long in someways, and in others, It feels like it must be at least 5.  We have truly been so happy together.  I still can't believe that I was lucky enough to marry this incredible man.  We are going for a get away this next weekend, but for the day, we were able to go to a training together while a friend watched Eden.  It was a wonderful way to spend our anniversary and we look forward to our overnight get away as well.  We're going to Lagoon and Raging Waters in Utah.  We don't get many chances to play without anything else to worry about, so we're grabbing it up.  Did I mention that I love all things water parks and fast rides?  So excited!

Sorry there are no pictures for this one, my camera is still in one of the boxes waiting to be unpacked.  Pictures of our new place and our adventures this next vacation week to follow.

You Are my Sunshine

Life has a way of always throwing us things that feel too big for us.  Nathan and I are looking forward to the fall when Nathan will be busy with his calling and work and student teaching seminary and school.  Eden and I will be managing at a new complex and keeping busy with her getting into EVERYTHING.  We've been thinking about April when we graduate when we look at each other and say..."Now what?"  We're not sure whether we'll have a job with seminary and institutes or be looking for a job in the communications field.  At some point we'll be going to graduate school.  We don't know whether we'll do that right away or work for a year or two and then do it.  We don't know if we'll even be able to find a job when we graduate.  It's a lot of maybes and no absolutes.  This is hard for a person like me.  I'm a planner.  I have my whole life planned...and it never goes the way I planned.  But I guess this time, I can't be wrong, because I have no idea what to plan.  So we'll simply move forward, a step at a time, and trust in the Lord and His timing.  And we'll learn in time what the plan should be and who we are to become. 

Her are a few pieces of happiness that have helped me as I've been lost in questions of what is coming next.  It is these simple things that make life worth living.  Sitting up at night watching Eden try to open toys and laughing hysterically at her uncontrollable hands and the way she is trying to figure out life.  Or sitting outside on our porch watching the sunrise, walking to the temple, waking up early in the morning to read our scriptures, eating a warm bowl of soup on a rainy day, hearing from a friend or family member I haven't heard from in a while, growing closer to Nathan, seeing Eden smile.  These things are my happiness.  These things are my sunshine.

 Look at those eyes!  Couldn't you just melt? When she blows out an outfit, I stick her in the bathroom sink for a bath because it's just too much effort to fill up the huge bathtub two times a day:)  Here she is loving her daily "I-leaked-out-of-my-diaper-even-though-mom-changed-me-30-minutes-ago-and-somehow-got-it-all- the-way-up-my-back-and-down-my-leg, bath."

 Eden has been accepted to the "Geography gifted and talented program" at the local preschool.  She spit up an exact replica of South America on Nathan's shirt.

 Eden now feeds herself bottles and actually eats them much more quickly than when we hold her while she eats.  She used to do gymnastics (not even kidding, ask my mom if you don't believe me) while she was eating, now she just lays quietly and drinks her milk.  I sometimes feel like a bad mother because I'm not holding her while she eats, so I lay next to her on the ground and touch her arms or legs so she knows I still love her.

 I just couldn't resist this picture.  Eden is in a screaming phase.  When she's starting to get upset she scrunches up her face like this and screams for roughly 1 sec.  and then goes back to playing.  30 seconds later, she'll scream again.  This is a scream caught on 'El Camera".  I love the way she gets that little red bump between her eyes when she's mad.

 I am loving our new camera.  I've been playing with it a lot, and poor Eden is my main victim.  I take pictures of her for about 10 minutes every day while I try to learn how to capture light and play with my settings.  I'm not much of a manual type girl, so playing is my only learning device when I don't have a teacher.  In this picture I employed Nathan to make her smile while I shot pictures. 

 Just another from that same little session.  I just love that you can see her beautiful eyes and her cute little lips.  If you could see her arms, you would see that she's trying to grab the lens on the camera:)

The lighting is terrible in this picture, but she was posing like this all on her own, and I had the camera so I couldn't resist.  I just kills me that she was sitting right in the light of the blinds.  That's the great thing about learning to take pictures with a kid this cute.  She makes up for my photography flaws.