I'm a Mommy

On Friday, Ashley headed down to New Orleans for a girls weekend. Eden and I packed Saturday full of fun. One of the most memorable things we did was go to Chick-Fil-A ... not that doing so is all that special, but what happened in the play room was just too cute not to write down.

After we finished our lunch, Eden wanted to go play. I took her into the room and took her shoes off. Then, I told her that I would be right back; I had to go clean the table. When I got back Eden was not playing at all, but sitting on the bench next to two moms. When I asked her what she was doing she responded by saying, "I'm not Eden. I'm a Mommy." Then, she smiled and did a signature shoulder shrug.

Lately she has really been pretending to be other people (and things) alot. When she pretends to be Ashley, she says, "I'm Mommy. You be Eden. Now I'm going to work. But don't cry baby. I'll be back after your nap. You have fun at school." Too cute.

Oh ... and the reason there are no pictures? Ashley was not there (and I can't figure out how to pull them off my phone).

all the way from tennessee

A few days after Josie left, the Green family made the trip from Nashville to see the Tigers play the Vols. We spent the day on Friday hanging out on campus ...

... and left Eden and Syler with a sitter to enjoy tailgating and the craziest ending to a football game I've ever seen.

Poor Jennie ... she got picked on all weekend ...

I got invited to be a "faculty guest coach" which means Thomas, Emma, and I got to go down to the field prior to the game. I think Emma will have trouble for quite a while going to games - she got pictures with the cheerleaders and even got to sit on the bench next to Jasper (the place kicker). And Ashley and I had rather nice seats, too.

Eden enjoyed having Emma and Syler sleep over for a few nights and really enjoyed looking up to Emma. Unfortunately, Emma also passed along the "Geaux Tigers" cheer ... it has taken me a long time to retrain "War Eagle" but I think I have her brainwashed again :)

Overall, a nice vist - lots of excitement and an all around good time. We hope the Green clan can come back to LA soon.

Josie came to town

Eden's friend, Josie, moved to Jackson before the end of the semester. The reunion was great ...

Ashley stayed home while Josie's mom could meet with her advisor about her dissertation. They played with toys old

and new

Here's a picture from the summer just before they left. We miss the West family and look forward to spend-the-night visits of the future.

they finally made it

Whitney and Boston planned to come to town the weekend of September 24th. On the way down, Whitney got into a wreck on the interstate. Her car was totalled, but she was okay. Luckily the wreck happend just outside of Mobile, so my Mom was able to pick her up. Boston was coming in from the other direction, so he just kept going until he got to Mobile. They got here that night late and were able to see Eden for a little while on Saturday before their wedding.

Eden was glad her Aunt FeeFee was okay.

On Saturday morning, we had beignets at a local cafe-du-monde-like place ... as we were eating we got a little bummed that we had not discovered it earlier (just 2 blocks from our house now!).

Eden loved the beignets ... especially licking off the sugar.

We lounged aroud a little, Whitney was able to get checked out for possible injuries, and Ashley and I actually got to go to a football game (West Virginia). Eden had her first sleep over that night because the game was so late ...

my first sleepover

We took Eden to Kegan's house around 5:00 on Saturday evening ... dressed up to cheer on her favorite team :) She had to take her stroller since Kegan's is one of his favorite toys ... seriously, he pushes everything around in it - we're proud that we had the courage to get it for him.

When Eden goes over there, she likes to play with all of Kegans tools ... cutting the sheetrock (and other people) is her favorite.

We headed to the LSU game around 6:00 for the 7:00 start and got a picture to prove that we were out of the house on an official date. We didn't get home until 1:00 am ... ssshh, don't tell.

Since Eden had been asleep since around 8 and since Keegan's mom Marie encouraged us to enjoy our night out, we decided to pick up E the next morning. The report was that she had a great time. Eden and Keegan ended up sleeping in the same room, with Keegan in his crib and Eden in a pack-and-play. They started out in separate rooms, but after Eden yelled from the guest room, "This is a bad place!!", Marie wisely moved Eden out of that room.

In the morning, they feasted on pancakes and played some more before we got there. As we gathered Eden's things, we noticed that she had ended up in bed with three interesting books - "I want to be a Nittany Lion," "Touch and Feel NFL," and "Cars." We are so thankful to have such good friends in Baton Rouge.

september fun

Some things that Eden likes to do ...

Play cheerleader with Daddy (wonder how long I can toss her in the air?). Can you guess our team?

Run in the sprinkler in the backyard ... not sure, but it seems like a ploy to get down to her underwear.

Play doctor (the panties are her doctor hat, and I have a bobo).

ARP

At some other point in September, a box arrived at our front door ... it was filled with family pictures from Allison Rodgers Photography. As you can see, some of these photos were a long time coming (only because Ashley took a few years, literally, to decide which ones she wanted).

Our house feels more complete now.

kisses for cashews

I have no idea how old this is, sometime from the end of September. Eden's Granddaddy and CC came to town on a Thursday night to stay with Eden while Ashley and I worked Friday. One of the first things Chip made sure to do? Grab his cashews ... when he does that Eden will not leave his side (until they are gone).

And it's an easy way to get kisses ... How about some kisses for these cashews? Eden loves cashews, and her Granddaddy loves Eden's kisses.

For a while now, Ashley has been telling Eden that you can't wipe off Mommy kisses - that they stay on forever. Last night, when Ashley asked Eden whose kisses last forever, Eden said, "Granddaddy's" and then laughed. She knew she was being funny, but I guess those cashews really are powerful.

the pledge

Little did we know, Eden and her classmates have been saying the pledge of allegiance every morning at PDO. How did we find this out? Well, as Eden and Ashley were driving down the road last week, Eden was "reading" her little red-leather Bible in the back seat, turned to the front where this is a picture of an American flag, and started to recite the entire pledge. There was Ashley just driving along not believing what she was hearing. Here is Eden teaching me how to say it ...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com