Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

At our church's Family Fall Festival you could get your picture taken (thanks go out to Sheila, once again!) and we were excited about Aurora's first Halloween party.
Fortunately and Unfortunately we have a daughter who has very healthy sleep habits (admittedly that daughter also has a sleep nazi for a mother) and she slept through the whole party in her car seat! So this cowgirl & cowboy are missing their little horse.

This pic reminds me of my old "Sadies" dances in high school. It seems like I often found myself sitting on bales of hay in matching outfits with my date for those pics too.



Our little horse made an appearance on Halloween night when we had our second annual "healthy dinner with some friends before the trick or treating sugar high begins" party.









The DuBravac's, who hosted the party, live in this great neighborhood. It feels like you are trick or treating in a Norman Rockwell painting.
The beautiful neighborhood:

The beautiful friends:


We didn't officially "trick or treat" (she can't eat the candy and Jared and I sure don't need the candy) but Aurora managed to get a piece anyways...she is too cute for her own good.
(For anyone who is wondering or worried- she never actually ate the Snickers)

Happy Halloween from the Edwards Family!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Our Home

I have been feeling stressed and frustrated lately over the selling of our home and the finding of another one to live in. Mostly it is the ambiguity of the situation, of not knowing when this big change will finally occur.
-
Also, a lot of our stuff is being stored at my brother & sister-in-law's house (Thanks Tom & Jessie!) and of course I discover daily that I need something or the other that is packed away.
We have also put our lives on hold waiting for this move to happen. For example, I want to join a nice gym that also has a quality babysitting program but I haven't yet because the minute I pay for a membership we will move. I know that seems kinda of small or silly but there are lots of these small things that are starting to add up to big pains and stress!

-

So to alleviate some stress and frustration and to show to myself that I have done all that I can to move this forward and to help me let go of the things in this situation that are not under my control... (think drumroll in your head as I reveal the solution to all the above)
The Magic Solution is...to post pictures of our home on this blog. Since this is my own personal therapy this post is rather image obese.

The front of the house during Spring




Summer


The eat-in kitchen with newly painted cabinets, new appliances and a new floor.

The oven was a birthday present from Jared last year. I love my flat-top range!

I made those cute curtains. And the tomatoes in the windowsill are just 3 of about 300 from our garden.


-

Living Room

We love all the light the French Doors bring to this room.
The fireplace has been fun to use and even needful during the ice storm last year.
-


The bathroom with new flooring.
-

Our bedroom

-

Aurora's bedroom- which is something else I put on hold. I was going to do a lot more with this room but decided to wait until the new house.

This room has some of my favorite artwork prints by Cricket Press.

-

The Study or Guest Bedroom:
I completely remodeled this room one week when Jared was out of town as a surprise. It used to be a dumping ground for anything and everything.
I pretended I was on the show "While You Were Out" and had a friend video record the whole transformation and Jared's reaction when he got back too! (I can't get the video to post on here at the moment).
Jared and I started dating while performing as Wesley and Buttercup in a version of "The Princess Bride" thus the large poster of the "real actors" from the movie.

Our patio & backyard

Jared did all the landscaping. These are lilac bushes, hostas and there are a couple dogwood trees all that gives the feeling of a nice private garden.

We added the screen doors so the outdoors could be enjoyed more often even when we had to be inside. The screen doors "hide" by rolling into the frame when not in use.

Our garden


The shed that Jared and I built...

The apple tree in our backyard
Anyone know someone interested in buying a home? Because I know someone who has a cute home and could give them a good deal. :)
Thanks for looking...I do feel better.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Raven Run

Fall in all her glorious colors is now here but just a couple weeks ago it was still closer to summer than fall. Its amazing what a difference a couple of weeks can make. So in between sessions of General Conference, we decided to exercise our physical bodies since our spiritual selves were getting a workout.
We went hiking at Raven Run with our good friend, Alyssa and her kids.
Here is the gang.

We found hiking sticks....

collected rocks...

found slightly hidden and enchanting architectural pieces...

had every "pretty" or "cute" flower pointed out to us...



saw the biggest and nastiest thorns I have ever seen...

crossed over quaint bridges...

to reach the Overlook and take a family picture.


While we were there our good friends, the Maughns, showed up too.


On the way back we experimented with all the different forms of transportation

(Aurora was soooo good on the way to the Overlook and then fell asleep on the way back :)


A very beautiful day!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Blessings

On Sunday, Aurora received her "name and a blessing" which is different yet similar to a "christening." Jared gave a beautiful blessing.
Afterwards, we had the 35 family and friends from out of town eat lunch with us. It was a rather large dilemma of where we were going to fit so many people...my house is not that big. Then the Carnegie Center came to the rescue. I truly love that place...I might dedicate a whole entry to the virtues of it.



Jared's family






Esther's Family



Our friends the Turners and McFarlands

After a long but great weekend, this was the designated place to nap.