Mommy's Little Helper

Eden is such a sweet little helper and it makes doing non-fun house chores so much better! Everytime I say "Do you want to help me with the laundry?" she heads straight to the washer and dryer. She loves for me to push her in the basket from our bathroom to the laundry room! Here is a little peek at how she helps me :)

Enjoy

***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom!

Untitled from Carissa V on Vimeo.

It Won't Go Away!!!

Plantar faciitis that is...

An inflammation of the plantar facsia (the muscle that supports the arch of your foot)

The second week we were in our house I was swiffering my floors when all the sudden I couldn't put pressure on my heel. It hurt so bad!!! I kind of blew it off for a few days thinking that maybe I just pulled a muscle or something. Three days later the pain was much worse and my left heel was double the size of my right heel! OUCH!! I went to see a podiatrist and he said I have a classic case of plantar faciitis (pronounced fah-she-itis). Apparently I have really high arches which makes me a perfect candidate for this condition plus the fact that our house has tile and hard wood floors throughout, adding to the problem. He gave me a cortizone shot in my heel (which hurt SOOOOO bad) and gave me a steroid pack. Well, a week later it was definitely worse and I had a hard time doing anything. If you are a mom - you know how difficult it would be to be out for the count for a few weeks. I went back to the doctor and he seemed really surprised that the treatments didn't help at all. So, he gave me a boot to wear for 2 weeks which I only wore for a few days. I know, I know...it's horrible non-compliance, but wearing it only made my situation worse and it was much easier to just not wear it. When I had it on it took me 10 times longer to get anywhere I needed to go, it still hurt to put pressure on my heel inside the boot therefore I was still tippy toeing with the boot on which then caused my shin to bruise and hurt - not to mention the fact that Eden was afraid of it at first and people just looked at me weird! Well it's been a month and a half since this all started and I am STILL dealing with it. It is not near as bad as it was and some days are better than others. It is more frustrating than anything. By the end of the day my feet are aching and throbbing and in the mornings I have to use the bed as support to get started! Nick has been so sweet to massage my feet every night which has helped some, but I still can't get rid of this pain!

If you have this or know anyone that does...What do you do to help it????

Dance Eden, Dance!

The other day Eden was stomping her feet and I told her that was dancing. Being the smartie that she is, she will do that everytime I tell her to dance. The other day I was eating breakfast and she was playing in the kitchen and we were listening to Taylor Swift. When this song came on, I looked over and she was just dancing away. I grabbed my video camera and got this... (please excuse my naked baby - she wouldn't let me put clothes on her that morning - I think she would rather be naked anyway. I promise my child has more clothes than me!)

***Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom!

Dance Eden, Dance! from Carissa V on Vimeo.

Memorial Day Weekend

Oh how I love 3 day weekends!! This weekend we got to spend some quality time with my old roommates (and their husbands) from college. Everyone is all spread out accross Texas (and one in Iowa), so it was so great to have everyone in the same place and catch up.

Here are the girls at Lupe Tortilla...
K.C., Anne, Me, Rachel, Cynthia, & Krista

Here is everyone... (minus Anne's husband, Scott - he had to stay in Iowa)
K.C. & Sterling, Rachel & Patrick, Myself & Nick, Anne, Cynthia & Mike, Krista & Henry

The girls again...the girls came over Sunday afternoon and they all got to see Eden! Good times!


I had so much fun catching up with these special people!!!


This weekend we also got to see baby Kynnly Statser! Our good friends and former neighbors, Aaron and Heather had their baby last Thursday. She is sooooo precious and such a beautiful girl!!

Here she is...

A Neighborly Issue

We have been in our house for a little over a month now and I have only met ONE neighbor. Aren't your neighbors suppose to bring you cookies and introduce themselves? Maybe that's too traditional. The second week we were here the neighbor next door was out walking what I think was their grandbaby and she waved at me. I waved and said "hi" and started walking toward her to meet her and she turned around and started walking the other way. Hmmmm....maybe we live on a street of introverts. Do I just need to go introduce myself?? Any thoughts...suggestions??

Eden Funnies

I absolutely love this stage that Eden is at right now. Don't get me wrong, it is a lot of work keeping her out of things she is not supposed to have. But, I love all the fun things she does and learns each day. Here are a few things she has done recently that are so cute and funny!

- She has learned to give kisses. When you say "Eden give me kisses," she comes right up to your face with her mouth open real big and touches your lips.
- Yesterday we were playing in the back yard and she wanted to play with her baby pool. There was no water in it and it was a little deflated. I went over and started blowing some air in it and when I was done she came over and put her mouth on it and started doing the same thing. So cute!
- The other day she fell and hit her head and I got some ice to put on it. She of course wanted to play with the ice so I gave it to her. I asked her where her owie was and she put the ice on her head.
- She loves putting things together and taking them apart. Sometimes she will bring me two things (most of the time a cup and a small toy) and she wants me to put them together so she can take them apart.
- She loves getting snuggled. She will bring me her blanket and her puppy and hand them both to me and I wrap her up in the blanket and she gets REALLY excited and squeals.
- Her favorite thing right now is jewlery. Anytime she sees jewlery on anyone (mostly GG) she wants it - especially bracelets!
- If you tell her she is "so pretty" she either strokes her hair or rubs her clothes. If she is wearing a dress, she holds it out to you.
- She is starting to know exactly what you are saying. The other day I told her one time..."can you go put your bracelets in your princess truck?" and she thought for a second, looked around and went over and did exactly what I asked.
- If she has something she is not supposed to have we tell her "Eden, go put it back." and she says "BAAAA" and usually returns it but a lot of times we have to help her put it back. haha


Her new words are...
- BAAAH = Back
- Puh = Puppy
- Dada = Daddy
- Mama = Mommy (but she rarely says this)
- Behbies = Babies
- Bizay = Busy
- G-jah = GG
- Beh = Bed
- Jeeuse = Juice
- Duh = Duck


I just love that sweet little girl.

Here are some cute pictures from a few weeks ago. We took her to the park and there were ducks. She chased the ducks around pointing saying "Duh, Duh, Duh!" So sweet!!

Happy Birthday, Nick!!

This past Sunday was my amazing husband's 24th birthday! On Friday we celebrated together as a family. We started the night with an amazing dinner at Escalante's Mexican Restaurant. YUM-O! We then went over to the mall and got Nick some new clothes...he was in desperate need of some new jeans! Shopping is always a daunting task, especially for clothes. It's hard to shop when you are trying to stick with a budget and find something that fits great and looks good too. We walked right into Macy's and Nick found a pair of jeans, some shorts, and 3 shirts that he loved. I'm talking we were probably in there about 45 minutes and we were done. It was awesome. Shopping for us usually takes hours...well, maybe I should say shopping for me. I guess guys are easier to please in that area. (*For all you penny pincher's out there, Macy's is having a sale on Levi's jeans. I had already bought Nick 2 other pairs of jeans before we went that night and one of them cost me $8.99!! We actually bought another pair of those for him to use for work. A $50.00 pair of jeans for $8.99 - AWESOME!!.) After shopping we went over to this new ice cream shop called Swirl. Nick LOVES this place (and I do too). When you walk in you get an empty cup and you go fill up your cup with as much frozen yogurt as you want. There are all kinds of flavors to choose from. Then you go over to the topping bar and put whatever toppings you want. You pay by the ounce and man is it delicious. Nick likes to get the mango yogurt with fresh mango pieces on top. I got the cake batter yogurt with crushed up butterfinger. YUMMY! We had a blast and Eden was such a great girl that night. On Sunday, his actual birthday, we had my family over to celebrate and we had a wonderful time.

I am so grateful for such an amazing man to be my husband and life partner! As I was thinking about him on his birthday, I realized this year how much I appreciate him and also how much I have learned from him. One thing I knew about Nick since I met him, but I guess never really truly appreciated about him is how wise he is. He really blows me away with things he says and knows, and how he handles situations. It makes me confident in our future as parent's and as Christians that I have such a wonderfully smart, intelligent, and wise person to go through things together with. He is my BEST friend and my love for him grows stronger every day!

He is an amazing father to our beautiful baby and I LOVE seeing the two together. It's the sweetest thing!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Nick!

I love you.

-Carissa

*A letter from Eden*
-Dada,
Thank you for being such a great daddy! Thank you for working so hard to provide all these fun toys for me to play with, a comfy bed to sleep in, and yummy food to eat (and throw on the floor). I love it when you play with me and give me kisses! My favorite part of each day is when I hear you come in the door and I realize how much I missed you all day. You are the best daddy in the world and I love you, Dada!
Love,
Your little princess!