A Wedding, Rolling over, and Other Noteworthy News

 This post contains many updates.  We've spent the last couple of weeks hosting Nathan's two siblings at our house while we waited to go to Dani's wedding, checking girls out for winter semester, checking girls back in for spring semester, collecting rent, weeding, watering the lawn, shoveling snow, setting up I-night and new student orientation, preparing to student teach seminary, going to Dani's wedding, spending a day with my family, buying a new camera, watching Eden learn to roll over, watching Eden eat and LOVE solid food, and watching Eden learn to sleep unswaddled.  That's right folks.                                                                                        Unswaddled.  Here are pictures to tell the tale.


 Above is a picture of us putting together picture boards for the reception.  Cami is in pink, Dani's roommate Amanda is with her and Breanna is supervising Eden.

 Nathan experimenting with our new camera at the reception.  They had a gorgeous arch which you are seeing part of. 

                                               Mom and Dad Doutre at the Wedding.

 Eden and I hanging out on a couch at the reception.  She was a champ.  With setting up, and staying for the reception and clean up, she was amazing.  I don't think she ever got a good nap, and you can see that she is still as happy as can be.

 Nathan rounded up all the siblings to decorate the car.  Little problem...we forgot that Dani is allergic to latex and those are balloons filling the back seat.  Luckily, we took care of that problem before they had to drive away.

                                Nathan and Eden dancing at the reception with Nic's little brother.

 Don't worry, we are only getting her dressed on the bed, not changing her diaper.  The Hinckley family was kind enough to let us stay in their basement while we were down for the wedding.  They are old family friends of the Doutres from Puyallup.  It was wonderful to see them and we felt so comfortable there.

                 Grandma Doutre and Eden when we were watching Dani and Nic open presents.

 Great Grandma and Grandpa Williams holding Eden at Aubrey's soccer game.  I just love my grandparents.  Aren't they the cutest?  They have always been there for me, cheering me on in whatever I was interested in. 

 Nathan helping Eden get a much needed nap at the game.  We forgot to bring a blanket, and Eden still wouldn't sleep without being swaddled, so we used the car seat cover.

 Nathan's brother, Austin, calls Eden's hair, "the feathers".  She does look a bit like a peacock I guess.

               Another downside to long hair...everyone touches it, making it a bit greasy very quickly.

                                  The Champ.  Enough said.  We loved watching your game Aubs!

 Eden attacking the rings on the bouncer.  If we had a doorway in our trailer, I would get one of these in an instant, but alas, she'll just have to enjoy it and Grandma K's house.

 Last night, we had a date night with some friends in which we did a picture relay.  We had about 45 minutes to get as many pictures off of the list as we could.  The deal was that all team members had to be in every picture, so we were lugging Eden around in her car seat to get our shoots.  It was such a fun night!  Here we are all in front of the temple.

                                                                             On a stage...

                                                                           Jumping...

                                Singing a song with a random guy playing a guitar on a street corner...

                                                             Wearing funny hats...

 By a body of water...or our bathtub.  I just love Eden in this picture.  She has no idea what is happening as we were getting her in and out of her car seat like crazy and running everywhere we went.  She is such a trooper with her two crazy parents.

                                              Being mummified...  This was the hardest picture because Eden kept trying to take off her wrappings.  Anyway, those are just a few of our pictures from a wonderful evening.

                      Nathan got me lily's this weekend and they have made our house smell wonderful. 

Eden and I relaxing as I sing to her before bed time.  Now that she doesn't need to be swaddled, she falls asleep like this and then I just go put her in her bed.  It's magical.  The book that I read earlier really is incredible.  I was so worried about having to wean her off of being swaddled, but he said that when they are ready, they'll simply go to sleep without being swaddled.  And he was right.  One night she wanted to be swaddled, the next, she went to bed just fine.  I'm hooked.  I'll be trying this philosophy with all of my babies because it worked so well with Eden.  Some may never want to be swaddled, some may want to be swaddled until they are 7 months old, but if it means they sleep through the night at 6 weeks, I don't care how long they want to be swaddled:)  Side note:  I understand that the chances of having my next baby be such a good sleeper are minimal, but there's always hoping right?

I've been Pinterestified

I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I have a love/hate relationship with pinterest.  The problem is that I could literally spend the rest of my life making and creating the things that I see on pinterest and still not do all of the things I want to do.  Let's face it, I'm still learning how to get all the basics done in a day, let alone add in a bunch of creative projects.  The thing is, I end up not doing the basics in order to do my fun projects and then I'm MORTIFIED when someone knocks on the door and the dishes aren't done.  I end up having to give some lame excuse like..."well you see, eden spit up and then I had to look up how to get spit up out of the carpet, and one thing led to another, and now here I am, still in my PJ's reading about the best way to clean my dirty house. 

It's ironic.  Reading about how to clean my house whilst my toilet has yet to be scrubbed.  You see, how could I possibly spend 10 minutes cleaning a toilet that would take 2 if I had the right technique.  So I spend 30 minutes trying to find the best technique.  I have now lost 20 minutes of my day because I was trying to find a better way.

I keep coming back though...why?  The thought that THIS time it will take me longer, but NEXT time, I will know exactly how to do it.  And in the long run, it will save me time.  And I must feel that it does, because Eden just pooped on the floor, and I turned to my pins to find an answer.  Got the job done in 10 minutes flat, too. 

I guess this life is just a process.  We learn bit by bit how to be a wife, how to be a mother, how to keep your house clean in the most efficient way, we learn how to "home-make" the way that works best for our family.  This, at least for me, takes lots of trial and error.  People give you tons of advice on what worked for them, and I try every one until I find the one that fits for us;  which inevitably ends up being what you had thought of doing all along, or by mixing a bunch of different people's "perfects" into your own mismatch of bliss.

I guess this whole post is to say that I love being a mom.  And I love being a wife.  And although I am far from perfect, I am enjoying my journey.  Someday, I may learn to have the laundry folded by the time Nathan gets home and I may have exercised, eaten, and studied my scriptures before Eden gets up in the morning, but until then, I will enjoy accidentally sleeping in and somehow not getting out of my pajamas until 10am and dropping a glass on the floor only to have it shatter, and to look up at the clock and realize that the day has crept away from me and all I've done is played with and loved my sweet Eden.  And instead of getting down on myself for not being perfect, I will enjoy the journey.

TRAILER LIFE

Well, many things have happened since I last updated the cyber world.  We have moved to our new house...trailer, and love it completely.  We look pretty white trash on the outside and feel comfortable and extremely happy on the inside.  Our trailer is in the back of a property that we are helping to manage.  This has been such a blessing as our rent and utilities are paid for and I get to be a stay at home mom with Eden.  I work each day from 1-3pm at the office and I get to bring Eden with me.  I purposely set up my work hours during her nap time, so she sleeps in the next room over while I work.  It works out perfectly and I enjoy spending time away from home each day and talking to real people!

Nathan just finished a week of teaching seminary for a practicum and absolutely loved it.  As you can imagine, the kids loved him and he now finds himself thinking he may enjoy being a seminary teacher.  Right now, our options for the future are wide open and we really have no idea what we will be doing after Nathan graduates.  If he is chosen to student teach seminary, that opens a whole other can of worms.  If not, we will be deciding between graduate school or working for a year before graduate school.  As we have a pretty sweet set up with housing right now, we'll just have to wait it out and see.

Eden continues to be a joy in our lives and we love waking up each day to see what she will learn that day and how she will have changed since yesterday.  She is 3 months old and love to be around people.  While she doesn't cry having others taking care of her, she loves Nathan and I and is pretty smiley and giggly if one of us has her.  PAY DAY for parents right there.  She now bats at toys and enjoys watching basketball with Nathan.  If she is ornery, Nathan turns on ESPN and watches it with her.  If we change channels she starts crying, if it goes on commercial, she starts crying.  But watching those men run up and down the court has her mesmerized.  Nathan secretly (and not so secretly loves that she has this because it gives him an excuse to put down his homework and watch some basketball with her.)

Last night we took Eden to a dance that our stake put on for us.  We put her in the moby wrap and danced the night away.  That thing is the best invention since...the baby swing.  Both things have absolutely saved my life as a mother.  

Her are a few pictures...most of them featuring Eden.  (I really need to start taking pictures of things other than Eden, but when I have her to compare everything with, nothing else seems to scream...TAKE MY PICTURE!)

 This is what Eden look like in her Moby Wrap.  We take her on walks outside and she loves it!  This is when we went to the slam dunk contest on campus.  She was in heaven.

 Eden loves me to read to her.  BEST THING EVER!  She will sit on my lap for 20 minutes while I read her books.  As long as the book doesn't have too many words and I flip the pages relatively quickly, she's a happy girl.  I'm sure this will change once she tried to grab the books.

 I..kind of...got a picture of her mullet.  She moves her head so much, I couldn't keep her hair out of her collar very well, but I think it'll be enough to put a smile on Levi's face.

 Once again in her Moby Wrap.  She hangs out her each night while I make dinner and tidy up the house.

 I planned a sports themed date for Nathan and I.  When he came home I had made our kitchen table into a ping pong table and had dressed Eden up like this. 

 This picture shows my baby girl's hair turning light.  I love her dark hair so much, it makes me a little sad, but it's as cute as can be anyway.

 This is a perfect picture of Eden.  She is such a happy girl and coos and smiles all the time.

 The downside of having long hair.  When you spit up, it runs down your face and into your hair making it look like one of two things.  1.) You are really sweaty from laying on the ground and moving your arms a bit.  HOW EMBARRASSING! or 2.) You just had a shower...on one side of your head.  Either way, you get funny looks.

 When Eden and I go out to shovel, she gets all dressed up like this and then gets put into the Moby.  I think she's starting to understand that when I put her in this outfit, it means we're going outside because she gets really happy when I start dressing her like this.

Nate-o sporting the Moby.  This is us going to the slam dunk contest.  and you can see part of our trailer in the background...how quaint.

Graduvacation

That's right.  I'm going to be updating you on graduation and our Christmas vacation.  Thus...Graduvacation.  Life has been so great over the last month or so.  I finally figured Eden out and found things that help her to sleep well and be a happier baby.  She now sleeps about 6-7 hours straight at night and will then go back to sleep for another 3.  It has been absolutely blissful. Here are some (many) pictures to update you all on the last few weeks of our lives here in Rexburg. 

 Eden's blessing dress.  She was blessed at about 3 weeks old so that we could make sure our family could come and be part of it with us.  She wore my blessing dress and looked so beautiful.  E was really fussy that morning and I was so worried that she would be loud during the blessing, but she was a little angel.  I shouldn't have worried.  Church is her favorite place.  Literally.  She just sits quietly the whole time every single sunday.  Sometimes I wish I could go to church everyday.

 Grandma and Grandpa Doutre with little E.  At this point she was really fussy and cried for all of the pictures.  Of course!

                                    Papa D and Grandma K-haha!  Look at her screaming her lungs out.

 After church we had everyone over to our house for Hawaiian Haystacks and some good time.  Here is the Williams side.

                              The Doutre side-they came clear from Washington for the blessing. 

 The night of my commencement.  Eden went to Tanya and Logan Binghams to play with her kids and one of my bestie roommates watched her while we went.  Here we are in the BYU-I Center with Austin and Cami, Nathan's bother and sister who go to school here as well.

 This is the next morning after my convocation.  Eden came with us and was a little angel.  She is such a blessing and it took a lot of faith to have her when I wasn't sure if I would be able to graduate while having a baby.  She came early, but it all worked out.  WE DID IT!

 My mom and dad were able to come up for my graduation and I loved it.  Thanks for coming moma and pops.

 I just love this picture so I had to add it in.  This is a yawn, not a smile.  She started smiling the next week.

 After graduation, we headed down to my house for Christmas.  This is one of my favorite moments of the whole vacation.  My mom and I were talking in the family room and looked over to find ALL of the men in the house laying underneath our kitched table trying to fix the moving grooves.  They were all watching a different part of the table to make sure it was working.  Dad is on one end, Nathan on the other and Blake and Ty on either side.  CLASSIC. McKay, Clark, and Kyson weren't there yet or I'm sure they would've been in on it as well.  Later that week the boys dry walled one of our bedrooms.  Sadly, I failed to get any pictures.

                     Tyler holding Kyson.  Kyson holding Eden.  Eden screaming her head off. 

 Christmas Eve and Great Grandma Williams' house.  Grandma K fed Eden a bottle before her big performance so that she would be happy. Eden takes a bottle really well which is such a blessing when I have to go somewhere or when we're in public.  She can down a bottle in about 7 minutes and it takes her 35 minutes to nurse.  So when time is an issue, bottle it is.

 Eden's biggest moment to date...Being Baby Jesus in our  family Christmas Eve Pageant. Tanayea  was Mary and did such a good job keeping her happy.

 Christmas morning.  Here is our little family on our first Christmas together.  Eden got onesies and some rattles from Santa.  She squirms a lot before she falls asleep.  That is why her face is covered in the blanket.  Don't worry, I am not suffocating my child. 

 A few days after Chrismas we went to a jumping gym.  It was a blast!  I got some really great videos of Blake, Ty, and McKay doing awesome dunks, but this post was long enough without videos so I left them out.

 These are just some cute pictures of Eden at 2 months old.  She smiles and coos like crazy and is our joy and happiness.  She has beautiful bluish/grey eyes and still has long dark hair.  Although, the roots are going blonde.

                    Had to show off the hair.  I love it.  And it can fit easily in pigtails.  That's my girl. In the back it hangs about an inch over her shirt.  It looks like a little mullet.  Levi would be SO proud.

Our little one.  Sorry it's so blurry.  She never holds still and my camera isn't the best.