More pictures

These are with my Canon Rebel Xt with a f/1.4 lense (for those of you who care to know ;))

This one's a little blurry but I loved the composition!
I had no idea babies were so hard to photograph...they move constantly!
Next time I'll use the action mode... haha!

One of my faves:

Her amazing pointy finger!

Going to stand up

Her hands on my knee

I'm putting this as my desktop background! LOL

That's all for now!

What's been going on here???

It's been a while since I posted anything last, so I figured I'd better update this thing so you all would know we haven't dropped off the face of the earth.

We are all doing fairly well. Joseph is still out of work, unfortunately, but he has been going through some major life changes with God recently. I won't get into too much detail (that's for his blog, if he had one), but I'll just say that God has been and is dealing with many of the issues Joseph fights nearly constantly. As a result, things are starting to improve around here, in the spiritual and emotional atmosphere of our home. Yesterday, for instance, he asked to pray with me before I headed out to hang out with the parents...I was shocked but very happy. These changes have been a long time in coming, but just got instigated Friday night when Gary (our assistant pastor) prayed and talked with him. Thank you Gary, and THANK YOU GOD!

Eden seems to be growing up a mile a minute. She keeps adding to her library of words daily, and coming up with words of her own. Wish I knew what half of them meant! LOL. She now understands direction (up, down), points to things all the time, tries to describe things and how she feels when she bumps herself up, and understands some concepts like "be very gentle" and "if you touch that, ___ [will happen]". It's so amazing to see her develop so quickly!

It's especially cute when she points to parts of my face while drinking her bottle. She points to my eye, I say "eyes", then she goes to my nose, "nose", and so forth. It's really fun! I'm going to get a picture of her adorable pointing hand up here shortly!

Right now she seems to be putting all her little energies into trying to communicate and talk, so the walking stage hasn't quite hit yet. She can walk with only holding onto something with one hand, and I can tell she wants to walk on her own, but I think she is just scared of falling. I'm not pushing her, but it will be nice when she does walk I think because it might free my arms up a bit.

I am doing well also. I've been keeping busy catching up with friends lately, going shopping and having coffee and talking with them has been fun. I'm really fighting isolating myself by doing this...I think it might have to do with the stress of Joseph still not having work. We are doing fine financially because of God's amazing provision (and He's promised me it will continue), but it's still scary. I'm trying really hard to trust... Please keep us in your prayers, this is quite a difficult and long battle!

I have recently decided to get into painting again. I left this passion of mine because I thought it was somewhat of a waste of my time, time that I could be using to do something more productive (i.e., make money at). Well, God's really been putting it on my heart to do it again, and I've also gotten a little irritated that I have all this wonderful talent He's giving me and I'm doing nothing with it. How would I feel if I knew Eden had amazing talent at singing, for example, and she refused to sing? I would feel very sad at the least, which I imagine is what God has been feeling in this area!

So to fix this, Chelsea (my best friend) have decided to get together about once a week and paint. We're going to try to go to the Newberg GFU campus and use their studio, since I'm a current student. If we don't do that, and it's not too hot, we'll set up in her backyard. Oh, did I forget to mention, she lives in Vancouver now? Yay! So we're finally only about 20 minutes apart! I'm so glad. ^_^

The big news: Joseph officially has decided he's going to go and get his degree in video game design! I'm so excited for him. This is something he's wanted to do his entire life, but up until this point was too afraid to pursue it because he thought it would put too much strain on his family. Although I don't quite know (ahem, I don't know at all...) how this is supposed to work, with me graduating in a year and possibly having two kids by then, plus school loans coming due, I can totally see God's hand all over this if only because it looks completely impossible.

I know God has put this on Joseph's heart (he's also going to take a few music classes, or minor in music), and I can see God encouraging him to pursue these dreams. Added to that, I have supernatural faith that Joseph needs to do this and we will make it.

As far as the questions of "Should he start in the fall?" "Am I supposed to work full time with two kids after I graduate?" "Should we wait to have another?", I have no answers yet. As with nearly always, God simply wants me to trust Him and just take the step He's laid out in front of me. And that's enough for me right now. ^_^

Some more recent news: Joseph and Isaiah built a sliding-door-insert so we could get the A/C in yesterday, and now the house stays nice and cool! It's so wonderful, after me leaving every day just to get in some better temperatures, to be able to be at home and work on the house and whatever and not feel sweaty and sticky and miserable! Thank you guys!


That's about all of the major goings on in this little family!

Here are some recent pictures of Eden:

This was taken this morning (she's in her PJs).
The light from the kitchen window was shining in, and I thought she looked like a little angel!

Daddy built a tunnel for her out of an extra car shade we had. He's so creative!

And she loved it!

Playing under Daddy's video game table thing:

A picture I took with my semi-pro camera.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of her!

Here she is reading a book...describing what she sees by the "Dat...Dat..."

Anaphalactic Shock #2

So we're fighting colds and feeling awful last night. I bought some Alkaseltzer for Joseph, and decided to take it to see if it helped. I went to sleep right after taking it, and an hour later woke up with very very strong and painful esophageal (sp?) cramping. I took two Benadryl, waited about 20 minutes, and the cramping and pain were worsening, and then I started losing my voice and feeling a slight tightness of breath.

I started to get a little scared, and with God's advice took an epi-pen shot. First time I'd had to do that, and first time I had to take epinephrine since my first experience with anaphalactic shock (right after delivering Eden). I took Benadryl through the night, and during the night my lips and eyelids swelled up so I looked like a puffy Angelina Jolie.

I guess that means I can't have Aspirin, since that was the only thing we (my mom, my ER doctor uncle, and Joseph) figured I could react to.

I'm feeling a lot better now, but it was still a bit scary knowing that if I hadn't taken the epi-pen I could have died. I'm just glad I listened to God and took it!

My lips aren't swelled anymore and the cramping/swelling in my esophagus is gone. My eyelids are still puffy and my cheeks as well (a little), but now I just feel like I'm fighting a cold and not the rest of the allergic reaction.

I'm sad I missed out on Mother's Day. I really wanted to do what we had planned, which was going out with my parents, his mom, my brother, and our family to Red Robin. *sigh* Oh well! We're planning to get together for a BBQ at his mom's house in a week or so.

Tata for now!

Eden News

Well, Eden's walking! Not on her own really, but with the help of a toy walker! Here are some pictures.
She loves this thing! She is now walking pretty fast around our small living room with this walker, until she bumps into stuff. Then she kinda stands there for a minute, looking at the walker, then pushes it harder to try and get it to move. It's hilarious. She's growing up so fast!!

Here's a little video:

Mother's Day (tomorrow)

It's Mother's Day again (tomorrow), and we are trying to figure out what to do for our mothers.

I told Joseph that we should take them all out to eat in one fell swoop, and git 'er done. I love my Mom very much, she's one of my best friends, and I love my MIL too. And now that I'm a Mama, I've joined the ranks of women on this celebratory day.

Maybe I'll come to enjoy it later, but for some reason "Mother's Day" just bugs me. I guess maybe because I feel a bit forced to celebrate and appreciate my mother(s), and now I feel like Eden's supposed to celebrate and appreciate me. Which is fine, it's just I feel that I try and do that all year long (and Eden does too), so why am I forced to do it this one day out of the year?

Anyway, regardless of my grumblings, I know it means a lot to the mothers in my life to show them how much I appreciate them for the hard work they've done for me and mine, as well as for just being themselves and being "moms". So this year, to save on money (because we're running out!) I've decided to give them flowers, or write them something, or maybe even sing a song.

So to all those moms out there, just know your kids do (or will if they don't currently) very much appreciate all the hours and hours of work and sweat and tears you put into making their lives amazing and helping them become the best people possible. Happy Mother's Day!

Update: We're taking all the mothers out to Red Robin!! (My favorite restaurant) I'll be going by Safeway or Freddy's to pick up some flowers =)

Here's what we're doing today, cause we're fighting colds:

Ah, guitar hero. You're our friend.