9 months of Eden

It's been 9 months since baby E has made us a family of 6.

The novelty of having a new baby has not worn off.

The kids still run into her room (which is our room) every morning to greet her.

And when the kids come home from school she's the first person they want to see.

I don't blame them.

She beams with joy and wrings her hands and feet with excitement at the very sight of them.

She's mobile now and doubles as a vacuum.

Her newest trick is pulling herself up on things.

She has a grin that can melt the heart in an instant.

She's a calm soul and a quiet observer.

Definitely not her mothers daughter, which is probably a good thing.

Fresh out of the tub, wrinkly feet and all.

9 month stats:

All I remember is that she weighs 16 pounds and some odd ounces

and is in the 20 percentile for both height & weight.

She may be a light weight, but at least she's proportionate.

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Something pretty for the eyes

I just had to post a couple pictures from one of my recent senior sessions.

This could possibly be one of my favorite sessions to date, but I don't pick favorites.

It's like picking a favorite child,

or childhood dog,

or pair of shoes,

which I would never do

or at least never tell people I do

so I'm not admitting to favoritism here...

or am I?

Hi. I'm ginnie,

and I'm an equal opportunity mother, dog lover, shoe wearer and photographer.

To see more from this session click on over to ginniejphotography.com

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Free Download for Spring

If you print it, it will come...

at least that's my hope.

It's been rainy and snowy and rainy and snowy

and so, if spring is not going to show itself outside

then I'm going to make a little bit of spring inside.

So I thought I'd share just incase anyone else is suffering

from a major case of the lack-of-spring blahs.

Get your free 8x10 spring download HERE.

Enjoy!

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Laundry Day: a photo essay

It's laundry day- the day that falls somewhere between

"Mom, I've already worn all my underwear twice... both inside and out"

and

"Honey, have you seen any clean socks? It seems that all 46 pairs of mine are dirty"

It's my least favorite day of the week... or month.

This would be the face of a girl who just got bit by her brother.

Poor Eden. She's a patient soul, she is.

And I'm pretty sure she spit up all over my clean clothes.

But I didn't care.

Nothing a little Febreze and an air dry can't handle.

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Easter with my lovelies

Easter was a beautiful day.

The bunny came to our house and was almost caught on tape. Almost.

Perhaps next year.

Church was perfect and uplifting and just what I needed.

We had a very untraditional dinner of grilled chicken and french fries.

I managed to get only 3 pictures of the kids...

1.

2. This is where Macie decides that she's sick.

3. So she goes inside...

Put all 3 pictures together and I think we have a winner.

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Forgive me

Remember that time I was supposed to announce the winner of the Chick Hardware giveaway and never did? Sorry about that.

I've been in Vegas with a few of the girls I grew up with. More on that later.

I'm home now and it's raining and my inbox is haunting me and it's monday.

But I'm going to still pretend I'm in Vegas

minus the sun, gambling, and dirty old men.

It should be fun.

(At Serendipity going against everything I believe in about sharing drinks and germs)

And now to announce to winner chosen via random.org...

Merilee who said:

These are amazing and so cute! I love the momma bird necklace with the blue eggs.

I'm following her blog :)

Congrats, my friend! Email Heidi at chickhardware@msn.com to claim your prize.

And thanks to everyone who took the time to comment...

you make the blog world go round.

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Daily Dose of Sunshine

Brought to you by Eden.

Your welcome.

. . . . .

This is our story

10 years. 4 Kids. 8 years of school.

4 years on the East coast, 6 years on the west.

We've done a lot of living, been to a lot of places

and made endless amounts of memories.

So for our 10 year anniversary I surprised Nate with this video of us and our story.

That's a whole lotta life to squeeze into one little video.

A lot of hours, sweat, blood, and tears went into this movie

(just minus the sweat and blood).

It has now become a documentation of all my weight gain and weight loss,

along with a record of all my bad hair phases

(there were many).

The original video that I made for Nate was 25 minutes.

This would be the 9 minutes and 17 seconds, sweet & condensed version of it.

(If you scan through, my favorite parts are 2:45, 4:54, & 6:22

and Kaleb's face at 6:41? Priceless)

*Music info:

Rhythm of Love- Plain White T's

This is Love- Mozella (favorite)

Count On Me- Bruno Mars (favorite)

Other songs that I loved that didn't make the cut in the short version:

I Do Adore- Mindy Gledhill

Apple of Your Daddy's Eye- Peter Cetera

Every Day Love- Rascal Flatts (favorite)

Brand New Day- Joshua Radin

Hey Soul Sister- Train

Love is Endless- Mozella (favorite)

Life just seems so much better when you put it to music!

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P.S. Don't forget to enter the Chick Hardware giveaway here.

And if you started following Chick Hardware

don't forget to leave an additional comment to be entered twice. :)

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Death by Strawberries

My Macie girl turned 5 this week.

So holding strong to our birthday tradition

Macie decided what kind of cake we would make

and then helped with the baking from start to finish.

This year it was strawberry...

strawberry everything.

And it.was.delicious!

(It might not be pretty to look at, but don't let that deceive you)

Macie's Strawberry Strawberry Cake with Strawberries

1 pkg. strawberry cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) strawberry creme instant pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup white chocolate chips
...........
4 oz. cream cheese
12 oz. strawberry whipped frosting
1-1/2 cups strawberries

HEAT oven to 350

BEAT all ingredients except cream cheese, strawberry frosting, and strawberries in a large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into a bundt pan sprayed with cooking spray.

BAKE 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 10 min. Loosen cake from sides of pan; invert onto wire rack. Gently remove pan. Cool cake completely. Transfer to plate.

TOPPING soften the cream cheese and mix together with the strawberry whipped frosting. Mix until the frosting is smooth and creamy (be careful not to leave any chunks of cream cheese). Spread over the cake and then top with strawberries before serving.

Very simple. And very tasty.

Now go and bake likewise.

And don't forget to enter my giveaway.

Maybe you'll win the owl pocket watch and we can be twinners.

Maybe we can even call each other and wear the same color of shirt

with matching cardigans. It would be so precious.

Recipe adapted from one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes.

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Giveaway:: Chick Hardware

Let me introduce you to my fabulously talented friend Heidi.

She's a crafty one, she is.

On any given day she can be found in her house whippin' up some new pillows

or out in her garage refinishing some shabby-chic chairs.

She's out to save the world one craft at a time

and today she's gracious enough to giveaway some swag

from her unique line of jewelry.

Chick Hardware will be giving one reader the choice between

a Personalized Mama Bird necklace (which I simply adore)

or one of her vintage inspired Pocket Watch necklaces (which I own and love).

And it will be yours to have and to hold from this day forward,

for better or for worse,

for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish...

And it shall be your precious.

Please note: if you are the winner of this giveaway, the above vows are optional, but highly recommended.

To enter:

All I need is two forms of ID, social security number, credit card (all major forms accepted), blood type, urine sample, and mothers maiden name. No... not really. Not this time anyway.

It's actually quite simple to enter the Chick Hardware giveaway...

Just leave a comment on this post by Wednesday, April 13th and tell me which piece is your favorite.

It's easy, I'll go first. I'm loving this bracelet and the flower antique pocket watch.

Now it's your turn.

For an extra entry you can become a follower on Heidi's blog.

Winner will be announced Thursday, April 14th.

P.S. Heidi's also doing another giveaway on her blog. You should stop by and enter.

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