blessed

Bella is styling Eden's new onsie. We have been blessed with amazing friends and family. This shirt says it all. This is a post of gratitude to all of you who have helped us welcome our sweet Eden this summer. You are all so generous in with your love and open arms for our family. This last weekend we had a special party for Eden with our church family. We felt so loved and most of all blessed to be part of a community. We weren't meant to journey alone and over the last few years we are learning what it means to be in community. That story is a whole other post and today I just want to be grateful. So thanks to all of you who patiently waited with us over the last few years, those who gave generously to help us bring her home, those who prayed over us, those with just the right words at the right times, the party planners, you have all blessed our lives and we hope that you are as blessed by Eden in your life as we are.

I have a thing about sunsets. I love them. I've always liked slowing down whatever I'm doing to watch them. In college, I'd take a break from studying and go for a drive in the rolling Virginia hills to find a good place to watch the sunset. Duane and I got engaged watching the sunset. And if you've noticed my house sits in a perfect position to enjoy the Colorado sunsets. For some reason that is my favorite time of day. Usually that time of day is really busy for me. In the winter its usually around supper time and supper preparation has it's own chaos, cranky kids and cooking don't usually go well together. In summer it's usually after supper but the day is winding down. Maybe we've gone for a bike ride or looked in the garden for something to do. But it's the time of day that as a family we draw close to home. We sit down for a meal or get ready for bed but the activity for the day slows down. It's our time to reconnect. Sunsets seem to me like a special blessing on our day, a reminder that today was good. It symbolizes peace and warmth, like the world is getting tucked in for the night. And it's universal, no matter who you, where you are, or what you've done the sun sets for all of us the same. It's a little bit of grace in this crazy world. My kids are learning to love sunsets too. Sometimes they'll stop their activity and one of them will say, "look at that." And then for the next 10 minutes we stop our chatter and watch together. We live in the moment for the next few minutes, knowing that there isn't any other place we need to be or any other thing we should be doing. We are just together, present with each other. I love these moments and wish I could bottle them up for that rainy day when I have a hard time feeling grace. With all that can go wrong in our day, maybe that's why we need this (almost) daily reminder of beauty.

pictures/summer fun

New hat and mommy's baby dress.

Mud lake. You can't tell in the picture but Parker's pants are SOAKED.

Cousins. Wish we lived closer.

Love.

9 months

Eden is 9 months now as of last Friday. Here are a couple highlights at this milestone.

• She loves tummy time and can push up her legs for a split second. She does this funny snake belly where she gets the back half of her belly up in the air. Crawling is in our future.
• Screaming is an effective way to get attention around here. It started a few weeks ago when Duane would get home and she would patiently wait her turn. She quickly learned that just screaming got his attention much quicker.
• Teething....She now has 2 teeth to show off. Teething biscuits are good for at least 20 minutes of entertainment these days.
• Playing with toys that do something. She's moved beyond rattles for now and likes toys that have cause and effect. If she can put something in it, or pull it, or make noise with it, it's all good.
• Standing up. When we try to sit her down she straightens her legs and refuses to sit down. "Just let me stand, people."
• Frustration. One of the cutest thing at the moment (although I'm sure Eden isn't trying to be cute) is her frustrated face. She stiffens her arms, balls up her fists, and grits her teeth while she grunts at us. On a regular basis when we take a toy away, change her diaper, feed her something undesirable we get this face. It's too cute not to laugh but we try not to. I will try to post a pic of this soon.