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.