Here Comes Santa Claus!

Don't these pictures make you want to laugh and cry all at the same time! I mean, kids HATE Santa at first but later he'll become "the best ever". Poor Eden hated Santa...but her little sad face is so cute and funny. I'm such a mean mom. Jack definitely wasn't a fan of Santa either.

But Eden did like the bouncy ball Santa gave her. And she even admitted to me that it was nice of Santa to give her a toy even though when I asked her if she liked Santa she said, "no".


p.s. Thanks Eliza for the pictures.

If You're Happy and You Know It...Clap Your Hands!

*Clap Clap*

My Joys...

My mom and dad fly in TOMORROW.
I get a VACATION.
Eden will GET OUT OF THE HOUSE (she'll be pumped).

I'm so happy.

*Someone in the far off distance who somehow knows everything about my life yells out*
"But Bethany....WHY are you so happy? You've had so much to complain about!"

Me? Complain? NEVER! Just ask my husband. Hmm...scratch that, don't ask him.

Recent complaints (just to get them out):

• Finals week = No husband
• No husband = No car
• No car = Eden and I stuck at home going crazy
• Stuck at home and going crazy = whiny and bored child (and me)
  
• Morning sickness
• and Pink eye

But this just goes to show that even if you're a sick and lonely crazy-child hermit mother with a diseased eyeball....

You too can smile and clap your hands. :)

Happy Holidays.

p.s. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm being very realistic in fact. Although, the insanity displayed within this post may be have something to do with the complaints mentioned above.

Holiday Perm-a-Grins

You know those simple things in life that make you smile even just thinking about it? You can't help it...you gotta smile...and you can't stop smiling. There are several things on my Perm-a-Grin list including (but not limited to):

Norah Jones
Avocado-Vanilla Tapioca Drinks
Extra end-of-the-month budget money
Hot tubs

Its one of those things that make me happy cause I don't get these often making them a special treat when I do. Holidays do the same thing because there are some things I don't get unless its the holiday season. Here's my Perm-a-Grin holiday list:

Homemade Capriotti sandwich (turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce on a roll...try it if you haven't)
Christmas smelling candles
Elf ("Buddy the Elf. What's your favorite color?")
Peppermint ice cream
Turning off all lights except a lamp and the Christmas tree

So, this is me signing off....with a perm-a-grin. :)

p.s. Twelve more days until I head to Utah. Another thing that makes me smile.

Arts, Crafts, and Inspiration

A Story
by Bethany

Once upon a time there was a girl named Bethany. She loved to take pictures. She loved to blog. She loved to take pictures to put on her blog.

One day Bethany's camera battery ran out. Solvable problem. Then she realized that her battery charger had gone missing. Unsolvable problem.

Bethany's blog remained unposted.

Then she decided that she was sick of her old post, no new comments, and SEVERE lack of pictures....so, she pulled out the camera phone in desperation.

And now she can blog...at least today.

The end.


So, what was so exciting that I HAD to take pictures from my phone and post them on my blog? OK, honestly...it's probably not THAT exciting. But I wanted to show everyone Eden's art.

We've been having lots of fun the past while and it seems like there's lots of arts and crafts involved. Eden's been LOVING it.

There was a community activity day (Parents as Teachers) where the kids were able to get a little messy. Eden learned to paint. She LOVED it. They squirted a few colors of paint on a paper and the kids painted using a cue tip. She painted this all by herself (except her name of course). My favorite part about this picture was the blue squiggly line that is to the left of her name....see it? She drew that and said, "snake". (The picture is being held on our fridge by an Elvis magnet in case anyone was curious about the scary man in the corner.)

There was also an area with glue and things to stick to it. I put glue on and she would put things on (she did get to use some glue in the end as well). I wrote her name and Eden started to do really good at the beginning (notice the "E"). Then she just started plopping things on the page everywhere.

The only negative thing about this "messy day" is that Eden isn't much for messes (except when she eats and she knows that I rip off all her clothes for the purpose that its ok to get a bit messy). So, every time she got something on her hands she dropped everything and made me wipe it off before she would continue with her art.

Today at the house we had fun with cardboard. I pulled out the tent that I made for Eden a while back and she played for a while. Then she flattened it and laid down on it. I thought "hmm...that could be fun." So, I grabbed a marker and started to trace around her. She only let me do her legs. But then she would find other things for me to trace or tell me to draw something. Then she wanted to color and draw as well. It was fun.
Notice at the bottom I wrote her full name "Eden Emishi Finlinson". I was trying to teach her to say it. She said "Eden", "Mishi", and "Eden Finsin". Not too bad.

This is her drawing. It was after breakfast so I hadn't dressed her yet.Something I noticed a while back is that in her coloring book she'll scribble over it. But I noticed that she's really trying to color in the pictures the best she can. Notice the little circles I drew? She was trying to color each of them.
Also, I've been inspired. My friend's blog posted some crafts she's been working (blog post here) on that came from the blog makeitandloveit.blogspot.com. I love a lot of ideas that came from the blog and I'm determined to increase my craftiness. You should check it out if you haven't yet (and check on my friend's because I honestly think her little girl's sweater dress turned out WAY cuter than the one on the craft blog). You gotta kind of skim through it...there were a lot of things I was like "eh...I could live without that". But then you'll get to a few that look AWESOME and EASY. That's when I felt inspired to create.

Conversations with Eden

Attempting to explain to Eden that another baby is on its way...a little difficult...but it's been funny.

Conversations with Eden:

Me: "Eden, where is mommy's baby?"
Eden: (points to my belly button)
"Wah-Wah....crying."
(Shares her sippy cup with my belly)
"Poopy. Change."
(Wipes my belly with her hand)
"All better."

Me: "Eden, what should we name the baby?"
Eden: "Rock.....Trash......Hands."

Well, looks like we've got 3 suggestions for baby names. Hmm...dunno if they're gonna make it in the runnings.

I'm Horrible at Keeping Secrets...

Better Late than Never

Happy (late) Halloween! We went to our ward's carnival and trunk or treat which was a lot of fun. Tyson walked and played with Eden during the carnival...I was helping with the primary's booth of "shoot the ghosts on the wall with Nerf guns"...quite the popular game!

We unfortunately didn't get too many pictures...these are the best we got.

Eden the Indian and Jack the "JACK" o' Lantern...get it? Ha!

At the carnival Eden got her face painted (I mean, an indian has got to wear some war paint). She just sat there nice and still while they drew a flower on one side and a heart on the other....AND she never touched it after!