Lessons Learned from Taking Photos with Eden Marushka!

Lesson #1: Eden does not take orders . . . the usually smiley girl FREAKS out when people try to get her to smile for a picture. She will smile when SHE wants to and at no other time. (Check out the pout on that girl!)

Lesson #2: Don't mess with the "hair". (Can also be translated as: Don't put stuff on her head.) Third and final lesson: Living with Eden is always exciting. Seconds after her freak out, here she is laughing away. What a girl!

She's getting so big!

And is definitely gaining some hand-eye coordination.

Advent
We finally got our first really good snowfall and it is really feeling like Advent. Eden goes to sleep to the sounds of the Dale Warland Singers at night, and during the day she naps by the fireplace to John Gary, Harry Connick Jr, "Peanuts" and Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas albums.

We set up our Nativity set in our tiny door that sits in the wall on our landing. As we go up and down the stairs during the day it helps to reminds us what the season is really about.

I can't wait to teach Eden about the birth of Our Lord and see the wonder in her eyes as she counts down the days to His Birthday. Somewhere along the way I seem to have lost that wonder, but with the birth of Eden I am beginning to regain that lost sense of awe and amazement.

Even Ozma seems delighted by the season. This is the first time that she has had a whole yard to herself and with the addition of snow she is now running around the yard as if she is training for a race; running figure eights, and pulling such sudden stops that the snow flies out in front of her landing.

Welcome to our new house!

Here is our living room.

Our kitchen and front foyer.

And here: our bedroom and Eden's room.

And at long last our dining room ceiling is finished and it looks fabulous!

We are having a blast getting to know the area and making this house a home. Eden still will not sleep in her crib. She is extremely stubborn, and is fairly dramatic (I wonder who she got that from:). But as soon as the holidays are over we are going to begin the battle of the wills, and she'll have to get used to sleeping in her own room.

But for now she is a pleasant face to wake up to every morning. She loves to smile, blow bubbles and has begun to babble in an adorable low toned voice. She purses the sides of her lips when she speaks and looks like she can't wait to tell us everything!