Beach Trip

Hey everyone! Eden and I (mommy) were able to slip away to the beach for a couple of days last week with my mom, grandmother, brother, and niece and nephew who are here from FL for the month. I am going to get Gene to help me do a slideshow later because there are so many AMAZING photos. But, I'm posting a few of my favorites to "hold you over" since I haven't put pictures up in a while. Hope you enjoy them!

We went to Gulf Shores and it was Eden's first time at the beach. She kept calling the ocean the "big pool." She LOVED it and the sand didn't bother her one bit. In fact, she had sand in places that the sun don't shine, people! Eden loves the water. Several times I sat in awe as I remember how absolutely terrified she was of even a bath 11 months ago when we brought her home from China. Now, she will jump off the diving board with no hesitation..."all by herself."

She is so strong willed. Her favorite words these days are: "No mommy, Eden do it!" We are coming along well on potty training. We have pee pee down but poo poo is still an issue. She just prefers to do it in a pull up. Any suggestions? She will say she needs to go, we will sit on the potty and read for like 30 minutes and nothing happens. But then she'll poop 10 minutes after we get up in her panties. Help experienced moms!

We went to the cleft clinic for our 6-month visit last month and got a great report. We will go for a full speech evaluation in 6 more months and if that is normal then we won't have to go back until it's time for her first cosmetic surgery when she is 4 years old. We LOVE Dr. Grant and his team.

That's really all that's new with us right now. I can't believe our 1-year anniversary of Gotcha Day is next month...July 23rd. It seems like she's been mine forever, and yet the last year has flown by. Eden loves to pull our the "China DVD" that Gene made me for Christmas. She narrates each part and loves to tell others her story as she watches. She'll say, "poor Eden" on the parts where she is sad. And the funniest thing is the footage from Gotcha Day where Eden was sitting with the nanny looking at me and I'm trying to get her to come to me, she'll say, "Eden not know," which is how she expresses that she didn't know us and was unsure about letting me hold her. It's a hoot!

Well, I need to go. I still haven't finished Eden's "Life Book" from her adoption and I'm bound and determined to get it done. She's with her Ba-Ba visiting Meemaw and Peepaw so this is a good time to work on it. Oh, and did I mention we got a Guinea Pig and named her China? So now we have 2 dogs, 2 turtles and a guinea pig. Am I crazy???

Here are the beach pictures. I'll post the slide show later.

Playing on the beach.

Check out those legs! Couldn't you just eat them up???

Eden loves the sand!

Precious, just precious! These are the shots that will make me cry when Eden is all grown up!

I call this the Pottery Barn Kids photo. I don't know how my mom managed to get this one...Eden is never still!

I love candid photos like this. Eden loves her cousins, Hayden and Savannah.

I am SO SO Sorry for the long delay!

I just wanted to do a quick note to apologize for the long delay on our blog. I PROMISE I'm going to do better. Gene is on a mission trip in Ecuador this week and we are SO ready for him to get home. He will arrive home Tuesday morning. Eden and I are going to make him a welcome home gift tomorrow...after we go swimming with my niece and nephew who are here for a whole MONTH from South Florida. We are so excited! I promise to post some new photos in the next couple of days as well. I've gotten so behind and have LOTS to catch you up on.

I am going to begin using the blog to share my heart and what God is teaching me and not just Eden/family news. I know how much it encourages and challenges me when I read other blogs when you guys share your heart with me.

Sorry again for the delay. I PROMISE to post pictures soon so please, no hate mail!!!

Love you all!