9 Months!

Has it really been nine months since Eden's birth?! holy crapola it's gone by fast!

But yes, today marks nine months since her birthday and it's about time to update you all on her many acquired skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills... errrrrrr wait, wrong movie.

Anyways, after Eden's many months of saying "Dada" quite perfectly, she finally got around to saying "mama" in the last few weeks. Of course, she only says it when she's whiney or hungry, but it's a very clear "mama" in Edenese.
On the same language note, she can now sign "more" when she wants more puffs. AND! she claps her hands when we say, "Pai pai shou" (clap your hands in chinese). She also claps when we say it in english, but for some reason it's just more fun when she responds to the Chinese.

She's become an expert at Peek-A-Boo and Hide and Go Seek. well, more like Seek...she doesn't really understand the Hide part yet.

She may turn into a professional swimmer someday...or maybe firefighter or mermaid. I don't know. but she LOVES water. When we've gone to the swimming pool the last few weeks, more times than once she's tried to dive head first into the water. The girl's a dare devil. :)

She's comfortable with most of our family now too!
(my dad)

(brandon's aunt patty)
(cousin Audrey)
(cousin Avery, who is 1 month younger)

(and Brandon's cousins Amber and Camille)

She eats just about anything I give her. Among her new favorites are cheerios and tofu. She LOVES finger foods.

I know I already posted one piano picture, but it's her new favorite activity...so here she is being little Beethoven.

We recently purchased a new camcorder to record her first steps. We expect that to happen within the next month. She's getting so close to walking! Which technically labels her as a toddler! (insert another crapola here for having a toddler!)

And she heard her 8th language this past month. Spanish. That one was inevitable since we live in Tejas.

As if the month hasn't been busy enough...she also experienced her first camping trip!

(no we didn't make her sleep outside!)

It's been a whirlwind month for her. Staying the night in 5 different places. Church nurseries. The dry Texas climate. Carseat. Switching grandparent's houses every week.
She's had to adjust to a lot. But she's handled it like a pro.

All things Wedding-ish

My sister got married a week and a half ago to Brandon's best friend. and we got to be in the wedding! I was Matron of Honor (and the bride's hair-doer...let me interject that that is too stressful of a job!) and Brandon was the Best Man (insert Seinfeld's best man joke here). It was a beautiful wedding and we had so much fun with both of them!

The week before the wedding, Bekah was brave enough to let me shoot her bridal portraits. Apparently owning a fancy camera makes people think you are good at that sort of thing. I agreed and it was a piece of cake because Bek's so photogenic. Seriously, out of 300 some odd shots, not one with her eyes closed. She can smile & pose with the best of em. :)
Here's a few...

yeah. She's gorgeous. Thought you'd agree.

and for good measure, here's a few more wedding-ish pics:

us at the rehearsal

At the rehearal...my brother (a groomsman) standing in for the minister who at the time was in Taiwan, and Bekah and Kevin practicing their stance. Eden couldn't handle the excitement of the steps of the stage and had to chill in Brandon's arms throughout the rehearsal.

Bek & Kev at the rehearsal dinner

Kevin making sure his shoes fit before the wedding

and just because she's cute, here's some recent ones of Eden...
waving stylishly in her new diaper

and discovering the piano

Happy Dada's Day

I'm sooooooo behind on blogging. and seriously, I do apologize. But I've got some fairly good excuses: spending time with family, catching up with friends, one week with with my folks...the next with Brandon's folks, a wedding (a post to come soon on that), and well, just sheer laziness.

But amidst all the craziness of the last few weeks, Brandon celebrated his first Father's Day. And what a wonderful father to Eden he is!! For his first father's day Eden and I put together a little picture frame thingy for him to hang up in our new home in North Carolina. (no we still haven't moved out there...that's coming mid-July)
We were pretty proud of ourselves, though I'll give the nice lady in Parent's magazine some credit for giving us the idea. Anyhow, we bought a frame, some cardboard, and waited for a nice sunny day before taking these pics:

The idea was to find a frame that would hold 4 pictures so that is could spell "Dada", what Eden actually calls Brandon, but there's not one in ALL of Amarillo. So we had to go with DAD. :)
Happy first Father's Day Brandon!!