Sepmer Fi

Saturday night Lane and I were able to celebrate the United States Marine Corps 235th birthday - November 10 - by attending the Birthday Ball down at the Naval Aviation Museum on base in Pensacola. Lanes parents came in town late Friday night/early Saturday morning to be here for the weekend and to take care of Eden while we were out for the night. When they were here we were able to do a few fun things - IHOP for breakfast and the mall yesterday - to make their trip worth while. They hadn't seen Eden since the wedding in Iowa and Eden wasn't feeling well at that time, so she was a totally different baby. Since then she talks much more, in her own language of course, and she moves around a lot more. Crawling and standing seems to be all she does. She doesn't like to be in one spot for too long!

Lane and I got all fancied up on Saturday night - him in his Dress Whites, and me in a formal dress - and we went to dinner with some friends and then went to the Ball. Dinner was good, and Lane was happy to get there as the LSU game ended and he was able to watch it in the bar. This did leave me for a few moments as a single lady at the table as people were arriving, but what are you going to do? I've learned that I can't come between him and his football games and I don't really try anymore! While at the Ball we were able to see people that we hadn't seen in quite some time.

After the Ball we took full advantage of having trustworthy babysitters (and who were going to spend the night!) and went over to a friends house to play RockBand on their Wii. It was fun, but still, 2 days later I'm still feeling it!

Yesterday the 5 of us went to the mall to walk around. We didn't have real intentions of shopping, we just wanted to do something that was inside because it's getting cold down here. When we were there I realized that though Christmas is in another month and a half, really, for us it's actually in just a few weeks. We decided to do Christmas with Karen and her family and with the Daigle family at Thanksgiving because all of the long-distance family will be there. Needless to say, our trip to the mall turned into a little bit of a Christmas shopping trip.

We also ate lunch while we were at the mall and I had a big eye opener about how quickly Eden is growing up. Eden eats a serving of a fruit or a veggie for lunch and she also eats some "puffs," which are a snack that basically dissolve in her mouth so they're very age appropriate and they're supposed to help teach her how to eat solid food. Well, we conveniently forgot the puffs and only took her food. The way this child puts food away, I knew it wasn't going to be enough for her so I actually had to order food for her from one of the food court restaurants. Luckily, Lane and I got gyros from a Greek place and they had side orders of pita bread so we didn't have to worry too bad about making sure not to get her something fried. It was the first time we had ever had to order something specifically for her, so it made me feel like she's growing up - which she is because I just scheduled her 9 month well baby for next month.