May 4 - I was just playing with the camera {again} on the night setting out on our walk one evening. I love that it takes such beautiful pictures! I moved a little bit while taking this one, but other than that, it's fabulous!

May 4

May 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo! We celebrated in true American style - fajitas and margaritas {from a box!} Stay classy...

May 6 - One day Daddy will learn that you don't leave food behind, for the child will find it! She must have seen me reading my friends blog the other day. Her friend just did this too! And it wasn't just any food, it was also a chip bag.

May 6 - Oh yeah, she tried to smile for the camera!

May 6 - What a hog. I guess its a good thing that they're baked...?

A Journey

Here is one of my newest projects that I've been working on. This is my painting project that did. I'm not sure it ended up looking like I thought it would, but I'm happy with it none-the-less. I made it with colors that would work in my kitchen or in my living room - which ever allows the opportunity in future homes. This home has space in the kitchen and that's where it is hanging now.

I love the quote that I decided to use because it is SO true: Family, a journey to forever. The journey that we call life wouldn't be complete without our families. It starts with your family as a child and then through the transition on the journey, you some how end up on the other side of the family as the adult. I often ask myself {and I ask Lane, too} "Who decided we were old enough to be adults/parents/married?!" I'm just not sure when all of that happened.

In life, our family is who holds us up and keeps us going in times of need, and I absolutely love my family. I love that I can still be a child when I'm with my parents in and my "childhood family," and I can so easily transition to being the parent in my "adulthood family." In the end, family is what makes us who we are and what carries us on our journey of life.

I thought about calling it a day at this point, but I just wanted more. I LOVE how it looks here, but I wasn't quite ready to stop, so I kept going.

Ignore the dishes/mess - I got lazy after cleaning the kitchen and didn't want to put dishes away last night. But don't you think the painting fits perfectly in the space?! {I wish the red popped more, but I'll deal with it.}

Eden's Favorite Toys

I want to be able to freeze time so I don't ever forget the fun moments that we have while Eden is so little. Since I can't do that I decided to go around the house and take pictures of some of her favorite toys right now. These are the toys that she's most intrigued by these days and seems to gravitate towards when its play time {well, when she's not sleeping or eating.}

May 3:

Her Bus - She's recently learned how to pull it around with the string, but even better, she's learned how to put the balls into the round circle on the top of the bus.

Her Plane and Train - The train is a stack and surprise blocks train and she loves that its like a 2-in-1 for her {because she loves those things too!} The plane is a gift she got for her birthday, right after we found out that Lane would fly the C130, so Eden has her very own cargo plane to fly around now!

Books - it doesn't matter which one, or how many times she's looked at the pictures before. She loves to read. She now brings books to us and sits in our laps to read {a page} and I'm absolutely in love with the quality time that she likes to spend cuddling with us.

Her Race Horse - She can mount and dismount this thing like a pro. Bouncing and "jumping" on this thing are her favorites.

Her Chair - Yep, it's just a chair, however, we will find her just sitting in this chair doing nothing...just sitting. I think she likes the fact that its her size.

Her Crayons - She's a natural Picasso! She loves to have paper taped to the table so she can color. Watch out kids menus, Eden is allowed to have crayons now!!

Her Ball Pit - She loves climbing into this thing. She's learned to put the balls through the circles on this toy too. She does also like to get in and throw the balls out all over the house. It's a good thing she's {sometimes} good at picking up when we ask her to.

Her "Karaoke" Toy - The microphone on this thing really does work {to an extent} and if you ask her to sing, she'll go over and sing her heart out. All the while the bear is dancing to her music! They're a great pair.

Her Bubbles - These are the best bubbles ever. You can catch them and about a million come out all at once! One of Eden's multiple-syllable words these days is "bubble." Sometimes she's more amused at the fact that Ginger loves the bubbles than she is with the bubbles themselves.

Her Kitchen Drawer - I hate that my serving utensils are in a drawer that is so low to the ground, but Eden doesn't! Drawers and cabinets are hard to come by in this house, so Eden lucked out and she's got  a few that she's allowed to get into, and this is one of them.

Her Tupperware - This is probably one of Eden's favorites in the kitchen, but its one of the ones that I like to keep organized...bad combination!

See...?!

Bubbles

May 1 - Lane hitting the books.

May 1 - "Terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden is dead." Yes, that is a picture of my tv...

May 2 - Ginger and Eden weren't getting along this morning. Ginger was being very posessive about her bowl, but Eden wanted to pick it up, stack it with Nugget's bowl, and put them away {like she sees me do every morning.}

May 2 - There she goes, but Ginger isn't too happy about it.

May 2 - Eventually Eden thought they were playing a game of tug with the bowl. Hey, with molars coming in this week, whatever makes her happy!

May 2 - Eden loves bubbles {she asks for them all the time} even if she doens't know that they stick in her hair. "Bubble" is one of the multiple syllable words that she says with clarity.

May 2 - Looking at the bubbles in the air. {I, however, am just going goo goo over the length of her eye lashes!}

May 2 - Upside down again! She's finally discovered that if she looks between her legs, she can see what's "behind" her.

May 2 - She wanted to blow the bubbles too...little does she know, she's got it backwards!

A Little Bit of Everything

April 28 - The look of adoration. I love the way she looks at her Daddy.

April 28 - Reminding Daddy {after being reminded BY Daddy} that we don't eat crayons, they're for coloring.

April 28 - She's into giving kisses these days. They're my favorite!

April 28 - The corner across the street from our house at sunset.

April 28 - Our walk this evening was beautiful.

April 28 - We were just playing around with some of the auto settings on the camera.

April 29 - Such a good eater {if it isn't green!}

April 29 - Spaghetti Pie for dinner!!! mmmmm...She's learning to use her utensils when she eats. At times she does get frustrated, but who can blame her, stabbing your food with a fork isn't easy!

April 30 - Sweet Girl.

April 30 - Loving on Nugget. She's starting to learn the dogs' names' and I think its cute that she doesn't always call them "dog" anymore.

April 30 - Such a big girl.

April 30 - She was driving us somewhere - no one knew where to though.

April 30 - Roaming the playground.

April 30 - Eden as a Hooks player

April 30 - Eden got to walk around the row we sat in towards the end of the game because there was no way out and we were the only people in our row.

Hey There Crafty Lady

I'm not going to lie, there are days that I struggle with the possibility that I've lost Brittany. I know, it sounds weird, but there are two active scrapbooks in my house {that I am working on, no one else}, but neither one is mine. One belongs to a sweet little girl with big cheeks who gives awesome hugs and kisses, and the other belongs to the just as cute, studies-all-the-time-Marine {who still, by the way, gives me butterflies}. But none the less, neither one is mine, and it all comes down to the fact that I don't do anything worthy of being scrapbooked - playgroups, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc.

All that being said, I think I've discovered what I love and what might help to find Brittany...crafting!

I've obviously loved scrspbooking for a while, but I'm expanding my horizons. I'm learning how to sew {I just can't figure out what projects I'm willing to test out}, I'm venturing into different wood crafts, and I'm even trying my hand at painting.

Today I started on 2 projects and I'm almost done with both of them. One of the projects I'm working on is for Eden's room. I'm working on a height tracker/growth chart to hang in her room. I've been looking and i'm just not willing to spend all the money on them. I haven't found any for under $50 and I feel like that's insane. I finally broke down and went out and got all the supplies I needed and got to work.

While I've been waiting on the paint to dry on Eden's height chart {literally} I've ben working on a painting to go in our kitchen {in this house}. I'm using acrylic paint on canvas with the assistance of a decal I found at the store today. A friend of mine did something similar and I've never had the guts to try it myself. In the process I did like it better at a previous stage, so I'm still crossing my fingers that I like it in the end.

Of course I've been taking pictures of these projects because a} I have a New Years resolution to uphold and b} I have a new camera to play with. I'm excited to {hopefully} finish at least one of the projects tomorrow, so be on the lookout for Brittany, the crafty lady {who might have just discovered herself}.

Thank You!

Tonight I want to say a special thank you to all military - past, present, and future - for keeping us safe! As of tonight, Osama Bin Laden is dead and is no longer a threat to America. His organization is not gone, but without their leader we can hope for nothing but weakening of the terrorists!

I do need to say that there are still troops who are separated from their families and who are in Iraq and Afghanistan who are still in harms way. I pray for their safety and I pray for peace throughout!