We had such a great Thanksgiving. Charley's cousin, Dana, who is currently attending Alaska Bible College in Glenn Allen is staying with us right now. Because she's from Eagle (and they close the road down for the Winter), she had no way to get home for Thanksgiving... and since the thought of her sitting in her dorm room alone on Thanksgiving nearly brought me to tears, I loaded up Eden and we headed North (well, Northeast) Wednesday morning to kidnap her for the weekend. We have had such a good time since she's been here!

Eden likes her... :)

Thanksgiving Day, Dana helped me clean the house and cook dinner... I don't know how I would have done it without her! She was such an awesome help! We had two couples over, ate tons of food, and played games. It was so much fun!

Here's the guys playing Rockband waiting for Charley to finish the turkey

Ta-da! Deep fried by Charley, once again... awesome job hun!

Ginger and Mary :)

Here's Eden's friend, Freja (Gustaf and Ginger's precious little girl), giving Eden a big kiss! Is that not the sweetest thing you ever saw?

We had lots of 'firsts' this Thanksgiving. Eden got her first taste of 'real' food! Sweet potatoes!

It took her a little bit to figure out if she really liked it or not...

but in the end, she was a fan

Here's a video of Eden laughing her head off.. at what, I don't know. but it's cute just the same! :)

Saturday night, Charley, Dana, Eden and I went downtown to watch the 'tree lighting ceremony'. The best part was the free hot chocolate they were giving out. That stuff was GOOD.

All bundled up

Today, we're headed to church and then back to Glenn Allen (this time as a family since Charley can come too), to drop Dana back off at school. It's been SUCH a wonderful holiday weekend! Hope you all had a great one too! :)

Our Week in Pictures...

Eden continues to get stronger. She's holding her little - or, I should say, big - head up more and more. I love this picture of her... look at those baby blues! :)

She seems to get more personality by the day. Her new thing is that she doesn't like to be held by anyone but her daddy or me. While this is cute, and we love it, it's also becoming a little inconvenient... here's how she feels about it:

You're probably wondering why the heck I'm posting a picture of my new iphone. Well, because it's not just a picture of my new iphone. It's a picture representing an ORGANIZED life. Who knew such a little gadget could help a mommy sooo much! Anyways, it's actually Charley's hand-me-down... and my new favorite toy.

And yet, another random picture. You know how some people have a bin, box, or basket by the front door to catch all those mittens, hats, scarves, kids junk, etc? Well, I didn't want to do that because the last thing I need when heading out the door is having to dig through a BIG pile of stuff, trying to find my other glove, or Eden's hat... SO, I did *this* instead! ($15 at Target, shoe holder, used as my 'winter stuff' catch-all)

The other night, I came home from Fred Myers and this is what I saw. Have you ever seen anything more precious? They were watching Disney's EARTH...or as Charley likes to call it, ERF (why, I will never know).

Also this past week, we've been looking at houses in Eagle River. Even though it will be a few more months before we can realistically think about moving, it's been fun to start looking at what's out there. Anyways, besides that, I've been working on our Christmas letter. Can you believe it's already that time of year again??

Hope you are all having a wonderful week too!

A Couple Videos

These two videos show Eden's vast range of emotions. One, she's laughing and giggling... the other, she's demonstrating her ability to 'tell me what's up'. Yes, for those out there who think all babies are perfect until their 2nd birthday, I feel sorry for you. These kids come out of the WOMB with an attitude... hence, the screeches.

On the flip side, while she's definitely got her own little will, it's pretty stink'n cute watching her express her 'feelings'. haha She better enjoy it now, cause in a few months it'll be mom's way or the highway when she throws those tantrums. ;)





In other news, we finally have snow on the ground...and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere!

"Good Morning World"

As I mentioned before, Eden is such a happy, content baby. When she wakes in the mornings, or from a nap, she'll just lay there and wait for one of us to go in and get her. She doesn't so much as make a peep! She's almost *too* good sometimes! haha!

Here's an example of what she looks like when I go to get her from a nap...

Look at that sweet face. See what I get to gaze at everyday? Aren't I just the luckiest girl in all of Alaska?

Eden got an early Christmas present this week. REALLY early Christmas present.. it's a bouncer! ..and she loves it! :)

She also got a new hat. She looks like she belongs in a jack-in-the-box.

Some good friends, Marc and Chanel (and their darling baby girl) had us over for dinner last night. Marc, an avid hunter and sportsman guy, set *this* infront of Eden as she played in Bella's bouncer.

We're getting excited for Thanksgiving! What are you all doing? We're having a couple families over (friends of ours) and I'm going to cook! I've never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner before where I actually cooked the turkey. I'm kinda excited about it.. and kinda nervous. But Charley's AWESOME cousin who is currently attending Bible College up in Glen Allen is going to be here for Thanksgiving, and I'm sure she'll be able to give me a hand in the kitchen as well. She's such a sweet heart... we're excited to have her here for Thanksgiving weekend! :)

Mommy and Baby time!

Charley went 4-wheeling this weekend with some buddies, so Eden and I got some great girl time in! She and I went shopping, hung out with our friends, went to church, and just had an all around great weekend.

One of my favorite things about being a mommy to a happy baby is going in to get her from her naps. Here's what I get to see everytime I go get her out of her crib...

We just got a super Walmart, so Eden and I went with our friends Chanel and her baby (Eden's friend, Bella), to check it out. Here's what we found!

It's a bumbo. and she loves it. It's made out of rubber.

In other news, it's officially winter in Alaska. It was 14 degrees on the way to church yesterday. Just in case you don't know... that's COLD. But it's been absolutely beautiful outside.

Here's a picture of Charley's new 4-wheeler... and if you look hard enough, you can see all the frost on the ground outside. It's freezing out there. Literally.


nice, eh? Well, I need to get my house cleaned. I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)